Doomed
by SeveredArm
Summary: A new generation of pirates sail the seas. Rhythm, the queen of pessimism, is a young woman with a dark and mysterious past. She sets sail on the sea, and begins gathering her own unique crew of pirates. Her goal? Destruction.
1. Episode 1

[Ringo Isle; South Blue]

Heavy rain pelted down upon the unindustrialized forest which was positioned on a small island in South Blue, causing many an animal to scurry and attempt to find shelter beneath the thick, towering trees within the forest.

Thick within the dense brush lay a dark, damp cave, where a few small animals and bugs had chosen as their temporary shelter until the rain stopped falling. The cave lacked any stalegtites or stalegmites, though it held all of the other qualities most other caves had.

"The time is now," spoke a dull yet feminine voice from somewhere deep within its pitch-black depths, the sound echoing off the cave's rocky walls, though it was slightly dampened by the sound of rain falling upon the earth just outside.

After the echoes of the voice had long disappeared, a slight shuffling of clothing was heard, and before long, two glowing green orbs became visible from within the dark abyss. They bobbed up and down, signifying that whoever they belonged to had gotten up and begun walking towards the entrance, their slow yet unusually light footsteps creating a soft, rhythmic pattern.

Before long, a figure emerged from the entrance of the damp and dingy cave, stepping into the rain without hesitation and fully exposing herself to the elements of nature. Under normal circumstances, her lime green hair would have been voluminous and appear slightly messy, which would cause parts of her hair to sport stylish spikes. Unfortunately, the heavy rain had soaked completely through her hair, reducing its previous volume greatly. So much so, in fact, that all the spikes which had existed beforehand had since disappeared, the entirety of her waist-length hair now taking on a more wavy appearance.

A medium-sized black stuffed rabbit was latched close to the woman's stomach by the inside of her elbow, which kept the toy from falling to the soaked earth beneath.

The tall woman began walking in a seemingly random direction, though the randomness could only exist in the minds of those who assumed the positions of onlookers. In her mind was a specific direction and a specific purpose for traveling down the unmarked path she had chosen.

She was currently hiking through the forest of a prosperous yet somewhat small island in South Blue—Ringo Isle, to be more specific. The island was famous throughout all of the four Blues for its delicious apples and apple-flavoured delicacies, as one can only assume from its revealing name. The majority of the populace assumed the occupation of tree farmers, setting aside their fields for the sole purpose of planting and cultivating apple trees.

Though the majority of farmers on Ringo Island grew apples, the was the occasional farmer who grew other essentials, such as wheat, oats, and other crops that were used for daily life. Despite the fact that there was an abundance of apple farms and a limited amount of any other variation of crop, which created more competition for apple farmers and much less for other types of farmers, those who cultivated apples were among the richest folk on the island. Most of their produce, with the exclusion of apples, was imported onto their island, instead of grown. This system was mutually beneficial for both them and the nearby islands who they imported goods in from.

While farmers grew apples, others turned them into the delicacies that the island was so well-known for, including apple pies, apple strudels, apple icecream, various kinds of apple-flavored candy, and much more. In all, it was quite the prosperous island.

Though her clothes were now thoroughly soaked, one could still tell what the young woman was wearing. Though, with the rain becoming heavier by the second, it wouldn't be long before visibility would become greatly limited. Covering her long, slender legs were a pair of black skinny jeans, with three thick chains hanging from her left pocket, the first being the shortest and thinnest, while the last being the longest and thickest, and the middle chain's description falling in between the other two. A form fitting black and white striped turtleneck adorned her torso, its long sleeves reaching a few inches too long. To complete her look, she wore a pair of fingerless gloves over her pale yet slender hands, which were grey in colour, though they were almost completely hidden from view due to the extended length of her sleeves.

A backpack had been strung over her left shoulder, leaving the right-most strap to hang uselessly as the bag swung slightly with every step she took. The shape and colour of the backpack was that of an apple pie, which would have been quite the odd sight had not the young woman been from an island renown for its apple products. Though it was slightly different from the other souvenir backpacks the residents of Ringo Isle would design for tourists, it didn't look out of place or odd to anyone within the area. The swing of the apple pie-shaped backpack would have been much more violent, considering the rough terrain she tried upon, but the green-haired woman had become accustomed to traveling with ease through the treacherous forest she had been residing in for the past few years.

The unusual bag contained items that she had deemed necessary for her upcoming journey, though the practicality of those items was debatable. Though the compartment was not all that large, the woman had still managed to fit a good amount of items inside of it. Within was just a few simple items, including a compass, a pair of scissors, a square piece of cardboard, a few apples, and last but not least, a small, locked chest.

Though the previously mentioned cave had been her home for the past few years, she didn't even spare it a second glance as she left it for the final time. When she had first arrived on Ringo Island just under four years previous, Rhythm didn't have any money—nor the humility to ask to work in exchange for board. Instead, she had found a cave in the dense jungle behind the main city.

Within that forest were dangerous creatures and a terrain that was practically impossible to walk through. With its gigantic mountains, boulders that frequently fell from the mountains to random places in the forest, and sheer cliffs thousands of feet high that seemed to appear out of nowhere, Ringo Jungle definitely wasn't a place the islandfolk went. It was well-known around every inhabited part of the island that everyone who had dared to venture into that horrid place was never seen again. Quite a few had tried, to be sure, but none were successful, and eventually a ban was placed on the forest, prohibiting anyone to enter, so that there wouldn't be any more lives lost in that place.

Until the mysterious green-haired girl came, that was. Somehow, she had managed to stay alive while living and spending most of her time in the jungle. It shocked the island folk, and they had developed an unanimous opinion of her, which was that she must be a witch. In fact, one resident had even claimed that they saw her shift into some type of unearthly demon before entering the forest, though that was really just a false story originally created by a woman trying to outdo her gossiping conversationalist.

Add that to her spending up to months at a time in the jungle—well, one could say she wasn't exactly the most well-liked person on the island. In fact, the islandfolk had even developed a name for her—Demon Witch. Even the young children knew of her, and were warned never to go into the jungle unless they wanted to get eaten by the 'Demon Witch.' This tactic worked well enough to keep curious children from venturing in on a whim.

After she had expertly navigated out of the trecherous jungle, the young woman found that the rain had stopped, and headed towards a dampened gravel road that would take her straight to the heart of the city. She stared with a blank expression as a child playing in a nearby field screamed at the sight of her. He rushed to the side of his father and uncle—judging by their simillar appearences—who were in the middle of collecting hay bails in the field to the left of the gravel road. The adults ignored the child's wails for a few moments, until the boy started to pound desperately on their backs shouting 'it's the Demon Witch!' Upon hearing the cursed name, they immediately turned around, their tanned faces paling considerably when they caught sight of the drenched woman.

A woman—no older than twenty yet no younger than sixteen. She had a beautiful face, slim body, and breasts to die for, yet a dark and terrifying air around her that made many cower in fear, becoming completely ignorant of her beauty. What shook up the villagers most was the color of her hair—bright lime green, to be exact, as well as her slightly darker green eyes. The islandfolk claimed that her overall wild appearence, though especially her hair and eyes which both matched a certain multi-coloured poisonous plant in the forest, must mean that she could control the earth, and the plants within it as well. 'She has to be a witch,' they thought. Her almost unearthly pale skin only added to their theories.

The three males stood shell-shock, unable to move as a result of their fear. When the Demon Witch extended her hand in an odd motion to mess with their heads, a wide demonic smirk crossing over her features, the two adults immediately snapped out of their daze. The father picked up his son, and together he and the uncle of the child ran as fast as they could away from her, and towards their small cottage. After getting there, they locked every door and every window. It wasn't as if any of that could have stopped the woman if she had wanted to get to them, but no matter.

She couldn't say that she minded scaring almost everyone by simply walking into their line of vision. It gave her power and control—two things she quite liked. There was only one person in the entire city who she enjoyed the company of, and he was a local fisherman. He was also the man who had saved her life after she had washed up upon the shore of Ringo Island's beach, exhausted and dying from both dehydration and starvation. He took her into his own house and had cared for her until she was well. She would forever be greatful to him for saving her life.

That was where the young woman was heading now, actually. The old man wasn't only a fisherman, but also a bit of a shipwright, building smaller ships in his spare time. Eight weeks previous, she had visited him and requested of he to build a small ship for her to use for her departure and until she came upon an island that would sell her a bigger vessel. It had to be large enough for her to house her first couple crew members, as well as some sort of room below deck for shelter, at least until they found another much larger ship that would get them into the grand line. The old man had promised to build her the best boat he could build, as repayment for her bringing him the meat of rare animals from the uninhabited forest she lived in to him every month. He would sell them in the marketplace, and had become quite wealthy by doing so. He lacked competition due to no one else being able to hunt the beasts, since none would dare enter the forest.

Thirty minutes and many horrified looks later, she had arrived on the other side of the city, at the edge of the old man's seaside property. Before she could even step onto his land, the old man came rushing out of his house towards her, great excitement obvious in both his expression and his unusual behavior.

"Rhythm!" he called, waving wildly as he approached, "It's done! It's done! I finished it just last night! It's my best work yet!"

The young woman, Rhythm, nodded at the short man's words, beginning to walk towards him so he wouldn't have a heart attack from so much running.

When the two finally met, the eccentric old man—Regis, by name—motioned with great excitement for her to follow him. He ran towards the seashore, which was just beside his house, and to where he kept the ships that he built. Rhythm was able to recognise the ship that was going to be hers, simply because it was the only ship which had a very large tarp thrown over it—something a person would do only if they wanted to conceal it from the sight of someone else. After immediately noticing the stitch marks holding the large tarp's many pieces of material together with her unusually sharp eyes, Rhythm assumed that Regis had either sewn or got someone to sew a bunch of smaller tarps together in order to create this much larger one.

As she looked at it, Rhythm noticed that it was slightly larger than she had expected the old man would build—not that she minded, of course. The bigger, the better. The old man consistantly built his ships with extreme care, always making sure they were safe, sturdy and very well-built. Smaller ships were much easier to keep those standards with than largers ships, which is why the old man stuck to the building of smaller vessels. Besides that, building ships was just his hobby, and it would require many workers and a lot of planning to build something large.

"Close your eyes!" Regis commanded her, to which she complied to after rolling her eyes at the childish old man.

"Are they closed?!" he hollared again, unable to see her clearly from his position on the single mast of her new ship.

"Si, Rhythm's eyes are closed," she waved him off, using the direction she heard his voice come from to direct her lazy wave of dismissal.

After a few long minutes of thrashing, banging, and other odd noises coming from her new ship, Rhythm was finally able to open her eyes. When she did, she was honestly quite pleased with the result.

"Rhythm thinks he out-did himself this time," she almost allowed herself to smile as she walked up the retractable stairway and onto her very own vessel.

This one was a bit bigger than any of the other ships Regis had ever designed throughout his lifetime. By no means was it a large ship, or even a medium ship for that matter...in fact, it could just barely be classified as a bit larger than a boat. It lacked any rooms, besides a small area below deck that may be able to sleep three people extremely tightly. Rhythm knew it wouldn't hold up long enough for her to gather that large of a crew with the specifications she was looking for in crewmates, but it was definitely good enough to get started on her journey.

A sleek wooden ramp led up to a small platform before the figurehead. The figurehead itself was quite unlike those of most other ships, though that would be debatable if spoken in the Grand Line. This figurehead was a design Rhythm had specifically requested. It was the head of a crocodile who, to put it bluntly, seemed extremely demented, with bright yellow-red eyes that seemed to glow and nasty-looking razor-sharp teeth pulled back in a ferocious snarl. It would be quite terrifying indeed to the average person, or even to a pirate—but not to Rhythm. In fact, she was both impressed and fascinated by the atrosious sight.

"Beautiful," she whispered to herself, trailing her hand along the pointy snow-white teeth of the figurehead. Most vessels this size didn't have figureheads, never-mind a fancy one like this.

"I was hoping you'd like that," Regis chuckled nervously, "I called in a man who specializes in making figureheads for bows such as that. I haven't taken a good look at it yet—to be quite frank, it terrifies me. But hey, as long as you like it!"

Rhythm nodded at him to show her approval, before turning and looking at the main mast—not for any particular reason, really... mainly because it was just the first thing that caught her eye.

It was large and made of dark wood, seeming relatively normal. At the top of it, above the furled sail, was a small, open cylindrical lookout tower, and it appeared a lot larger than the ones Rhythm had seen on ships of this size.

"What's up with the lookout?" she raised an eyebrow as she turned to face Regis.

"Just an extra touch I thought would serve you well," he shrugged, though an almost unnoticeable sly look was on his face.

Unfortunately for them both in this case, Rhythm was extremely good at picking up on the small things, having eyes sharper than a hawk's, after all.

"Oh? How so, hmm?"

"I thought that having a look out place would be great because then you could tell when another ship was coming towards you! You could even put stuff in there!" he grinned excitedly.

Rhythm yawned, covering her mouth with one hand and rubbing her eyes in a sleepy manner with the other as she replied, "Not that Rhythm is being ungrateful or anythin'—she quite likes it, really—but doesn't he think it would be the first thing an enemy ship is gonna aim their cannons at? If the mast is broken, the lookout comes down with it, and so does anything and everythin' Rhythm has in there, hmm."

Regis gasped, eyes widening quite wide, "Oh my! I never even thought about that! I'm so sorry!"

His conversational partner sighed dramatically, drawled slowly, "Eh, Rhythm can find some other use fer it, don't worry. Anyways, would he mind showing her around a bit?"

He nodded eagerly, his previous excitement returning, "C'mon!"

Rhythm nodded, bringing her pace up to a jog for a few seconds until she caught up to the aging man. She noted that if he continued running like that, he may accidentally kick up a stone, and that stone may travel down a path that could eventually lead it to knocking into another slightly larger stone, and before long, it could easily cause a rockslide, and kill many people and animals.

"So, how's it look?" Regis asked suddenly, unable to contain his excitement any longer after having shown her a few more features on the tiny ship. Having known her for so long, he had become used to Rhythm's odd pessimistic behavior, and had adapted his expectations of her accordingly.

With a sleepy expression, Rhythm sauntered up to the figurehead, jumping up and swinging her legs over it as she straddled it backwards, in order to face Regis and not the ocean it pointed towards. She leaned forwards, placing her elbows onto it, chin supported by the palms of her hands, and then met Regis's eyes with her own drooping half-lidded ones.

Her mouth curled up the tiniest bit at him—something that Regis noticed and as a result became incredibly happy. His happiness overflowed when she informed him, "Rhythm loves it."

His face broke out into an even wider smile than usual, "Well hey, c'mon! I still have you show you a few more gadgets!"

xxxxx

"Later, Regis."

"You don't have to go, you know," Regis frowned up at her from his much lower position on the beach, "Just because the villagers don't like you—"

"That's not it," Rhythm snapped with a scowl, staring hard at him, "Rhythm could care less about themmmmm, hmm. If it wouldn't upset him, she'd have disabled them all by now."

"Then why leave?" Regis whispered sadly, leaning forward slightly.

"Rhythm has many things she needs to do b'fore she dies, yeah, and staying here won't help her complete them. But she promises to visit again before her time is up."

"Don't talk so gloomily. You won't die," Regis grumbled.

The green-haired girl tilted her head to the side and smirked slightly, "Everythin' has a limit, Regis—including time. It's jus' Rhythm's job to see how far she can push that limit. If luck's in her favor, she might be able to push it quite far. Rhythm will see."

Regis sighed and shook his head, deciding he wasn't going to win this fight.

"Fine then, Rhythm. I'll _allow_ you to go. But you'd better stick to your end of the deal and come visit me—and more than just once, too!"

Rhythm scowled, "He doesn't _allow_ Rhythm to do anything—she does what she wantsssss no matter what the consequences may be. But she'll make sure to stick to her side of the bargain. After all, Rhythm has never once broken a promise, and doesn't see why she should start now, hmm. Then again, she could die, and then won't be able to fulfil that promise, of course, ha ha."

The old man smiled, temporarily ignoring her pessimism, and looked up at Rhythm as she leaned against the railing of her new ship, "Just promise me one more thing."

The once dubbed Demon Witch raised an eyebrow, though she honestly wasn't the least bit curious, "Oh? And wha's that?"

"Just don't die before you've done the things you need to do. And never, ever give up. I can't have my rescuing of your sorry self be in vain, now can I?" Regis began to sob at the end of his speech, continuously and pointlessly wiping away the steadily-flowing waterfall of tears which didn't seem to be planning on stopping anytime soon.

Rhythm nodded to him, "Eh, no promises. Anyway, Rhythm says goodbye."

He waved up at her as she turned away from the railing and walked over to a different area of the ship to cut off the rope holding her small vessel to land.

She never once looked back as she sailed out into the seemingly endless crystal blue waters, black stuffed rabbit clutched closely to her stomach.

XxxxXxxxX

A/N: So yeah! Here's the first episode. I'm gonna update once a week. Or at least try haha! I kind of didn't get a chance to show hardly anything of Rhythm's personality, which is a bit disappointing since there's a lot more to her... Which I guess you'll see if you continue reading this haha! Which I hope y'all do. XD Anyways, reviews are always appreciated! I love constructive criticism.


	2. Episode 2

[Middle of Ocean; South Blue]

"Ahh," Rhythm exclaimed, yawning loudly as she stretched, the bones in her back creaking as they grinded against one other.

It had been a total of fifty-two hours since she had departed from Ringo Island, and had by now exhausted any and all options of things to do. In essence, she was quite bored. She had tried suntanning—which she found completely and utterly unentertaining. She had also begun cutting through wooden planks with a spoon—not boring in the slightest, but also not the least bit healthy for her ship, which was what led to her halting of that amusing action. Training was her most successful activity, and next in line was her most recent venture, which was sleeping. But she had soon become far too restless to fall back into a slumber and had instead decided to rapidly pace in a circle and think about what she could attempt next. An idea came to her five paces later. Perhaps Regis had placed a garbage can around here somewhere.

Upon finding the small white piece of cylindrical furnerature in the kitchen, she sat down beside it and pulled out a pair of scissors from her left pocket. She sighed, "This garbage can could have been bigger, but this will have to for now."

She paused to look at the scissors, briefly thinking to herself that she would probably by accident cut one or more of her fingers off by using them. Shrugging away the pessimistic thought, she began to cut the garbage can into tiny little pieces with her favorite lime green scissors, and as she did so, Rhythm's mind wandered to her next course of action.

She knew that it was suicide to try and sail solo in the Grand Line, and as a result had already decided she would gather a crew along the way to support and fight for her, as well as to keep her from becoming bored. If the latter were to occur, it would indeed be a tradegy.

Most pirate captains recruited any willing man to join their ship, hoping they would get some higher skilled ones during one of the hauls. They would then premote the strongest members into important positions such as first mate and second mate, or to fleet commanders if they had enough crewmembers. The rest of the men would be used as spares, capable of nothing but wearing down the enemy slightly, or buying time. Unfortunately, this tactic wasn't all that useful in the New World, seeing as how one of the weakest men sailing there could take down over 1000 men in a few mere seconds.

Most captains decided they were superior to everyone else on the crew, and enjoyed bossing their crewmembers around and making them doing the dirty work. The captains only took on the larger tasks, such as fighting a dangerous enemy. Well, most captains, that is. Some had different ways of thinking, and these people were the ones who had gave Rhythm her current opinion on this matter.

Her plan was to gather a small yet powerful crew with, with at most fifteen or sixteen members. Even that seemed a little large for her taste. It wasn't because she didn't find herself capable of handling a large number of people; in fact, one would find that she was more than qualified if they dug far enough into her past and saw what she was capable of. The reasoning behind her odd ideas were quite simple, and could be explained as such.

The first reason why she thought this way was because she had found during her previous years aboard a pirate ship that this system worked extremely well. Second, she preferred having ten or so people she was close to and that would all protect each other no-matter what the circumstances than to have a disfunctional crew who only watched their own backs, putting their own lives above others. Third, she wouldn't have to worry about recruiting more volunteers every time they lost most of their unskilled men to an enemy. And lastly, because she preferred solitude to company and was quite antisocial most of the time.

Each of Rhythm's crewmembers would have a certain skill or responsibility that would benefit the crew. Each didn't need to have a different duty, they just had to specialize in something that she deemed useful to the crew, even if some were the same. For example, she had already decided that it would be unwise to simply have one doctor, and therefore would find two or three skilled doctors or nurses along the way. If one doctor was busy or injured, the second would be free to provide medical attention to another crew-member. A third would be even better, though any more than that and the doctors might turn against one another due to their differing medical practices and opinions.

As for what her crewmembers would specialize in combat-wise, she had yet to find out. During her travels throughout the Grand Line, she had seen many incredibly unique yet effective fighting styles, and knew that it would be unwise to discriminate simply because of the way one fights. If it got the job done, then Rhythm would be the last person to complain. Then again, Rhythm's naturally pessimistic personality which automatically assumed the worst of every situation and everyone she came across might cause her to complain anyway.

Many of Rhythm's emotions had long since been forced out of her due to the circumstances and situations she had been apart of during her childhood. A kind man who she used to greatly respect helped to change many things about her, including her outlook on life; providing hope to a lost soul. Still, despite his efforts in trying to make her think positively and feel more, she rarely felt more than just a few emotions, and almost never were they positive ones.

Due to her personality and the first impression she gives whoever she comes across, most people stray far away from her, and in combination with her antisocial personality, this has caused for her to feel very few attachments towards other people. The only current attachment she has is what she currently feels towards her sisters, as well as towards the previously mentioned man from her past. Any other human who approached her was dangerously analyzed and constantly thought of by her as a threat.

Rhythm snipped off the leg of a human-shaped piece of garbage can plastic. She shifted her thoughts back to what they had been focused on before venturing onto the previous topic. "Ah yes, hmm," she muttered as she remembered her train of thought.

The main requirements for her crew-members were that they were to fulfill a purpose that benefited the entire crew in some way, even if not directly; also, they must be able to defend themselves. Though, even if one or two of her crew-members weren't exactly the grandest fighters to begin with, she was willing to train them in their preferred skill until they were significantly better and therefore qualified. She did not want all of them to be like that, though, and therefore needed to have the majority already being above-average fighters, even if it wasn't in the traditional sense.

Ringo Island was only a couple of islands away from Reverse Mountain, but Rhythm had decided that her course of action was to gather a good-sized crew before attempting the Grand Line, instead of venturing into it straight away. She had seen first hand the horrors that went on there, and knew from experience that going to that forbidden sea without a strong enough crew was practically suicide.

She planned to venture from island to island in a different direction—a detour to the Grand Line, really—until she felt that she and her crew were ready.

Another—

Rhythm stopped her train of thought suddenly, noticing that the last piece of the unfortunate garbage can had just been cut into a piece that was no larger than a square centimetre, quite similar in resemblance to the other pieces that had previously made up the small bin when they all were together. Rhythm had done a number of things with the poor garbage can, including the creation of the figures of people she knew-good and bad-and then the hasty disembodiment of their limbs, fingers, toes and anything else. Quite creepy and disturbing it would be to an onlooker, though Rhythm found tearing off body parts quite enjoyable and amusing, both with plastic ones and real ones.

She sighed at the sight in front of her, letting the last tiny piece of plastic flutter to the ground when her scissors decided they were too large to properly cut it in half. On the next island, Rhythm was definitely going to buy an extremely small pair of scissors for this very purpose.

Speaking of the next island, she figured that it couldn't be too far away. The name of it was Sharuu Port, though she had heard that the docking space for ships was quite small and inconvenient. Of course, she'd find out soon enough if those claims were true or false. That is, if she was even actually going in the right direction. She'd set the ship's rudder to go straight towards the island after setting off, using the compass she had placed in her apple-shaped backpack, but then completely abandoned her post when she realized that there was a garbage can aboard the ship, and that its plastic was just thin enough for cutting.

The island of Sharuu Port wasn't that special of an island, the only noticeable thing on it being the newly built marine base and prison. Well, at least it was almost built. From what she had heard, there were still some final touches to be done on the building before it could really be called complete. She had no idea which marines were currently stationed there, but she supposed she was bound to find out. No matter, though. If there were weak marines who got in her way, she'd incasipate them. If there were strong Marines, she'd also do the same. Either way, their fates were going to be identical.

In addition, Rhythm had also heard rumours of there being a very fancy restaurant there. Food was always something that had been extremely important to her, and it was this very desire that attracted her to small no-fame islands such as Sharuu Port and the cities within it. She had an extremely monstrous appetite, quite possibly inherited from her father. Then again, it also could have been due to her extreme shortage of food as a child which caused her appetite to be as huge as it was now. Rhythm herself did not know the exact reason why she had such a large appetite, though she had wondered about the cause many times. The only thing she knew was that every time she saved up a large amount of money, it was almost always spent on her next meal.

XxxxX

[Just off the shore of Sharuu Port]

An hour later and Sharuu Port was in sight. Actually, it had been for a while; Rhythm just hadn't been paying it any attention, having found wrapping toilet paper around herself in order to give off the appearance of a mummy far more satisfying. Not that anyone could really see her, though, and allow her the satisfaction of seeing the weirded-out expression on their faces.

Rhythm suddenly realized that if she was to stop before smashing into land, she was going to have to let down her anchor. Unfortunately, she hadn't searched out its location, and therefore knew nothing of where it could be, or if the small ship was even equipped with one.

Glancing at how quickly she was approaching the dock, Rhythm suspected that she only had about twenty seconds before the ship would crash, and with that in mind she began scowering the entire vessel for an anchor. Upon finding nothing after the first eight seconds—all the while unwrapping the toilet paper from herself—she grabbed a barrel and in record time had neatly attached a nearby rope to it, the other end of the rope being attached to the railing of the ship. Not the best idea to attach it to there, but Rhythm didn't seem to notice. The lime-green haired girl proceeded to jump into the barrel and lower herself down as an anchor. Though her IQ was off the charts, she often was unable to apply her intelligence to the common things one had to do in a day.

With the absence of someone steering it, the small ship turned slightly, causing it to just barely miss the single nearby dock. It continued on towards the land on the dock's right side, which was a very small cliff, and was a good four feet higher than sea level.

A small girl with short cropped pink hair was walking about ten feet from the edge of the cliff, directly in the area where the ship would launch up onto due to its immense speed. The child hadn't even noticed, yet even if she had, it wouldn't have made any difference; there was no time for her to escape from her inevitable demise.

Upon finding that using herself as an anchor wasn't working out too well, as she just seemed to float when the bottom of the barrel she was in hit the surface of the water, Rhythm resorted to her last option. It'd make her sore for a few hours, but it was her only chance of saving the ship from damage. The little girl would be saved too, though Rhythm didn't care so much about that.

With these thoughts in mind, Rhythm crouched down and then abruptly launched herself from the barrel, seemingly disappearing, causing the large bin to rattle and clang loudly after her very sudden departure. In the blink of an eye Rhythm had reappeared, her back braced against the flat, hard earth where the land dropped off into ocean with her legs extended straight outwards. Not even half a second later, the full force of the ship plowed right into her already-braced legs.

The little girl, just now noticing the odd sounds coming from her left side, turned and screamed loudly at the sight she was just in time to see. She froze and without thinking covered her eyes with her hands; the ship which had to be at least twenty or thirty feet tall including the height of the mast launched itself towards a green-haired teenage girl who was attempting to stop it.

When she didn't hear any noises after an initial extremely loud and extended creaking sound, the young girl peeked out from behind her fingers and then waited for a few moments, allowing her eyes to refocus. When they did, she couldn't believe what she saw, and her mouth dropped comically. Somehow, beyond all sense of reason, the ship hadn't hit the small yet sheer cliff nor launched itself upwards onto land. Instead, it had not only been halted, but also launched slowly backwards towards the narrow single nearby dock.

She just then noticed someone climb over the edge onto the ground. Smiling happily, the young girl waved excitedly at the woman with green hair and the black stuffed rabbit she held close, "Thanks miss! Thanks bunny!"

The woman tipped her head at the girl she had just saved, before halting the slow motion of her pirate ship as it tried to float back out to sea and attaching it to some much larger marine vessel docked nearby with thick metal-laced ropes. Once that task had been competed, Rhythm jumped down and began walking along the inclined dock, in order to reach her short term goal of going to the nearby city which she noticed was not too far away. Before she could even get off the dock, though, she noticed six men suddenly appear in front of her, even before they had seen her themselves.

"Hey, you there!" a male with extremely short brown hair called to Rhythm upon seeing her. She mentally wondered what that haircut he sported was called again... fuzz cut? No no, it was something else. Hmm... ah! It was called a buzz cut! She thought so, anyways. It wasn't wise to cut one's hair, in her opinion, because if he tried to put a hat on top of his head, it would probably slide off, and if he was standing by the ocean, it would fall into there, generating a small ripple of water, and if the wind was just right, that small ripple could grow larger and larger until it became a fully-fledged hurricane, and if that hurricane was near an island, it could easily destroy a restaurant, and that would be a tragedy, to be sure.

"Hmm?" the tall green haired teen turned only partly towards the new voice, obviously quite uninterested in whatever he had to say and distracted by her own musings about the inconsistent pattern of the grass just off the shore. The brown-haired man with the buzz cut looked both larger and stronger than the other five men who accompanied him, all of them sporting confident smirks on their scruffy faces.

"This is our dock!" the larger man hollared once again, "Pay the fee or leave!"

XxxxXxxxX

A/N: Haha so I ended up posting this chapter like way earlier than I'd intended... Oh well. XD Anyways, Rhythm got a bit more time to show her personality, and she's now onto her very first island! Oh, btw, I'm going to try and make my chapters about 3000 words in length.

P.S. Thanks so much for the reviews! It really makes me happy to know people are actually reading this(:


	3. Episode 3

[Sharuu Port]

Rhythm ignored the men attempting to scam her of money as she jumped down the short distance from the end of the dock to the ground, not paying the group any attention. She proceeded to walk straight past them, causing all six to turn a furious shade of red.

"Hey!" the spokeman, whom Rhythm assumed to be in charge, exclaimed angrily, appearing in front of her once more, "Pay the docking fee of 20,500 beli or else we'll force you to!"

The lime-haired woman halted her movement, waiting as the five following the first man appeared behind him.

Rhythm lowered her head, the focus of her eyes unknown as a shadow created by her long wild bangs cast itself upon the top half of her face, leaving everything below it on display, with the rest of her face hidden from view. A few more moments went by, during which the six idiots trying to scam her all came to the bright conclusion that she had given up. They were surprised, though, when Rhythm's head quite abruptly shot up slightly, a menacing and dangerous smirk appearing upon her deathly pale face. The shadow still loomed over part of it, but now animalistic glowing green orbs could also be seen through her half-lidded eyes. The girl they were targetting suddenly seemed considerably more dangerous than they had previously assumed, her eyes and expression giving away her immense bloodlust, rippling from her body in thick waves.

She turned towards the leader and tilted her head to the side, drawling slowly, "Rhythm refuses."

As soon as the words had left her mouth, she launched forward, stabbing her closed left fist right passed the skin barrier and into the lower abdomens of each of the five followers, the entire process taking her a mere two seconds. The leader was the only man left, currently standing stock still as he tried but failed to process what had just happened in such a short amount of time.

Rhythm smiled a crazed smile—which only appeared when she got the opportunity to torture someone else—as she approached him with obvious stealth, black stuffed rabbit clutched tightly by her unbloodied right arm, "My my, so weak. Rhythm is disappointed. Oh well, you'll enable her to have _some_ fun—for a few moments, at least.

XxxxX

[Sharuu Port's dock]

"Sir!" a low-ranking marine officer exclaimed in shock through a mini den den mushi, standing at Sharuu Port's third dock and gazing at the six downed men, "Something absolutely horrible has happened!"

"What's wrong?" a deep voice on the other end of the line responded, the tone seeming slightly concerned yet not entirely. The low-ranking Marines often tended to call in issues that they deemed of the greatest importance, when in reality the issues should have been the least of their concern.

"Six men...are lying on the ground...by the third dock!" he gasped out, his body rigid and his eyes wide. Most likely, this marine wasn't used to seeing such sights, hence the shock and fear he was currently portraying.

"What do you mean by lying? Don't tell me they're more marines sleeping on the job again."

"Five of them have ripped open stomaches, and the sixth...he's in far worse shape! Absolutely mutilated! Please come quickly, sir!"

"I'm on my way," the Marine Commander replied, before swiftly hanging up.

XxxxX

[A random street in Sharuu City]

"That was quite fun," Rhythm stated with her regular dull expression back once more, and she truly meant what she had said. The lime-green haired girl's stomach suddenly rumbled loudly, causing her to look at it, "Ah, so sorry, stomach. Allow Rhythm ta compensate by treatin' ya to lunch."

With that said, Rhythm shot off in search of the nearest restaurant. Rhythm was currently in the process of scouring the entirety of the main port city, called Sharuu City, for a restaurant. On the first side of town, she had come across two which had gone out of business, yet none of which were currently up and running. She only hoped that the other half of the city would have some sort of diner.

"Oh come on," the teen sneered under her breath, a prominent scowl on her face as she dodged between the many bodies making up the crowded street. She continued this pattern for another couple minutes, only halting her rapid movement when a large sign caught her eye. It displayed a large table full of numerous delicious dishes and delicacies, and had the words "Win our contest of the hour for a free meal at the Red Shull restaurant!" in red lettering.

The building behind the large sign was quite small, seeming to be more of a booth than a store. It was covered in many flashy signs, all having something to do with games, puzzles or riddles. The building was quite open, having no door or wall facing the street, the inside fully exposed to anyone who looked in its direction.

In front of the open building was a flashy man in a shiny suit, with slicked back hair quite obviously drenched in a large amount of hair gel and adorned with expensive narrow sunglasses. A large megaphone occupied both of his hands as he shouted through it, inviting people to come and challenge some riddle master for a grand prize at the port town's supposed best restaurant, Red Shull.

"Come on down to Randy's Riddles and challenge the riddle master for a chance to eat completely free at the best restaurant in town! All you have to do is get the answer to three of the ten riddles read off before the riddle master does!"

Even now, many a man or woman lined up behind the current person challenging the riddle master. The riddle master was a man who appeared to be in his late forties and had a pompous and self-rightous air around him; his short black hair, expensive clothing and haughty expression did nothing to reduce this initial negative assumption. Rhythm automatically stereotyped him, assuming that he was probably a murderer simply due to his rich appearance. Perhaps his announcer was even his own personal assassin and would try to murder her when she won the contest. Anything was possible.

Each contestant, when it was his or her turn, would be sat on an uncomfortable-looking wooden stool, while the riddle master lounged about lazily on a large comfy single-seating chair. Intent on getting her meal for free, since she lacked any sort of currency, Rhythm headed straight towards the riddle master, completely ignoring the flashy announcer, long line, and even the current contestant. She halted just a couple feet in front of him, though his expression hardly changed. At least until she spoke, that is.

"Rhythm challenges him to a match of ten riddles. If she gets 'em all right before he does, he's gotta pay for everything she can eat at Red-whatever-the-heck-it's-called restaurant, hmm. If she misses any, or get any of the answers after you do, Rhythm'll do anything he asks," the teen drawled in a sleepy tone, her thin green eyebrows slightly furrowed.

After hearing the last part, the riddle master looked the girl in front of him over, a wide smirk appearing on his face as he did so, "I'm assuming when you say Rhythm, you mean yourself? Very well then, your deal sounds quite good to me. If you lose, which you undoubtedly will, you'll be my personal slave whose only purpose is to do what I ask you to for the rest of your life. And you'll ditch the stupid toy you're carrying."

Rhythm glanced to her stuffed rabbit, eyes softening for just a second before she turned away from it and nodded, "Ah sure, hmm, though he may wanna prepare to lose so the loss won't be so harddddd on him. Ya know what Rhythm's sayin?'"

"Fat chance," the older man scoffed, turning towards the flashy announcer, "Stop announcing for a moment and give this woman and I the top ten hardest riddles you've got."

The announcer's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, pupils dialating considerably, "W-what? Are you sure~?"

The riddle master nodded in confirmation.

"Well, if you insist~!" he sung, shooing out the current contestant so that Rhythm would be able to take his place on the chair, "Is each contestant in position?!"

Rhythm, now sitting upon the hard and extremely uncomfortable wooden stool, nodded, as did her opponent who still remained in the same position as before, the confidence on his face never once wavering. The hyper announcer appeared slightly nervous, but did what the riddle master requested of him none-the-less.

"Alright~! Riddle number one: You are in possession of a barrel of oil, and you need to measure out just one gallon. How are you going to do this if you only have a five-gallon container and a three-gallon container?

"Simple," Rhythm stated immediately after the last word was spoken, scowling at how simple the question had been, "Fill the three gallon container with oil and then pour it inta the five gallon container. Then fill the three gallon container again n' use it to fill the five gallon container the rest o' the way. There'll be exactly one gallon left in the three gallon container. Yeah?"

Both the announcer and the riddle master appeared flabbergasted. 'So quick!' the riddle master gaped mentally, though he maintained his cool composure on the outside, 'And I even reviewed the answers for these before the contest began!'

Rhythm smirked widely, leaning forward and clasping her hands together in anticipation, "Is there more, or has the famed riddle master given up already?"

XxxxX

"She wants to let him know that she happens to eat quite a lot," Rhythm drawled, her gaze never leaving the approaching restaurant ever since it had come into her line of vision. A small trail of drool had begun dripping down the left side of her mouth.

"Whatever," the so-called riddle master sneered, quite obviously in a bad mood and not wanting to converse with her. Surely a female couldn't eat too much, so he really didn't have anything to worry about. On the other hand, Rhythm was quite looking forward to cleaning out the pompous man of his money, though her face revealed nothing of it, her usual scowl clouding her features and causing a gloomy air about her.

As they entered the large restaurant, the riddle master couldn't help but be once again amazed by the beautiful interior of the large building. The colour theme was earth toned shades of brown, but varied in tone throughout the different sections and walls of the building in order to give it more variety. The heads of animals were mounted up upon matching polished panels, creating trophies, while glass chandeliers with intricate designs adorned the consequently illuminated roof. There were various areas where one could eat—the bottom floor, where expensive see-through glass tables covered the floor in an odd yet somehow orderly fashion, the tint the top of the tables a beautiful mint green. Black leather chairs accompanied each table, the amount of them depending upon the size of the table itself.

A very wide, grand wooden staircase whose shape was that of an hour glass pattern led up to a story higher, to where it was rumored that everything was even better than the first story; some who claimed to have eaten there said the roof was actually just sturdy glass. A person had to book a place there months in advance in order to actually get a seat. Unfortunately for the riddle master, who was taking this all in, the upper floor was pretty much closed off, and he therefore had never once gotten a chance to peek at what it was like and see if the rumors were indeed true. Money and bribery were useless here, or else he would have already attempted to make use of some of his immense wealth for that purpose; whoever booked first would get a table, and despite how rich or poor they were, all would be served as long as they could pay for the meal.

To top if off, the building had a large fireplace burning brightly, closed off by fancy intricately-designed steel railing, providing the log restaurant with a warm home-like feeling, and the soft classical music playing in the background only added to the comfortable atmosphere. This restaurant surely had the feel that every restaurant strived to give their customers—fancy and expensive, yet warm and cozy with a home-like feeling that almost made you feel comfortable enough to go to sleep.

Despite all of this on display in front of her, and unlike the gaping riddle master, Rhythm hadn't paid much attention to it, thinking to herself that the exquisite decor was probably rip off material, and the building would most likely collapse sometime soon. She scanned the building and quickly located any and all escape routes, despite still not having any proof that there was anything wrong with the building. However, she was more-so concerned about the food that she would soon be eating, and how it would most likely take way longer than usual to receive it after she orders, due to the restaurant being high-end and constantly filled with customers. Most of the customers were high class and rich, due to how expensive the meals were, despite there being no specification for customers. Probably more murderers, Rhythm scowled at them all judgementally.

"Table for two?" a pretty waitress with light brown hair and sky blue eyes asked cheerily, before nudging the riddle master and whispering to him, "My my, you're a lucky man!"

The riddle master gagged, having already decided for himself that the green-haired woman's dark and gloomy personality far outweighed her beauty.

"No way," Rhythm sneered, not wanting her meal to be dampened by the company of the riddle master, "He's on his own. Rhythm is with..." she paused to look around the busy restaurant, filled with important and wealthy guests, until her eyes landed upon a random male who looked to be in his early twenties sitting by himself in a booth, "Him." Her reason for picking him was simple: he wore an eyepatch.

If one were to take a closer look at their surroundings, they'd notice that every area in the restaurant was packed except for the three tables surrounding the man. Most would wonder why everyone was avoiding him, but Rhythm didn't seem to notice any of the hostility being directed towards him by all there, or at least chose not to comment on it. The latter option was most likely the more probable of the two, since Rhythm could read anyone and any situation in an instant.

"Surely you don't mean that!" the waitress exclaimed in shock, "There's a very good reason no one ever goes near him, you know!"

"Never question Rhythm," she stated coldly with an angry glare before she began the short walk towards the man who had caught her interest. Actually, it was more the accessories he carried on his person that caught her eye than the man himself. Not only did he wear an amazing and super cool eyepatch, but he also holstered a gigantic double edged axe on his back that looked quite durable, and its shiny appearance gave off the impression that it was well taken care of—probably cleaned regularly. How he was comfortable leaning against the back of the booth's seat with that huge thing on his back was beyond Rhythm. If she had to sit like that, she'd complain without cease.

The young waitress, eyes wide in horror, called to her from behind, "He'll kill you like he killed all those others!"

The outburst was heard by many of the people in the downstairs area, causing them all to stiffen and glare at the man in sheer hate. Much to the waitress' dismay, Rhythm ignored her, holding up her hand and waving dismissively at the young girl in order to express her extreme disregard for what she had just said. If anything, the warning had only made her more interested in the axe-wielding man.

XxxXxxX

 _Here's episode three! More characters are gonna be introduced next chapter. Action starts to pick up! Hopefully gonna post an update within the next few days. So, as always, reviews are greatly appreciated!(:_


	4. Episode 4

[Entrance of the Red Shull restaurant]

"W-what about me?!" the riddle master called from behind her all of a sudden. Rhythm paused, and without glancing back she replied, "Rhythm thought it was obvious. It's kinda simple, though she s'poses he wouldn't have caught on, hmm, due to his inferior intellect," her harsh words caused the man's face to heat up in anger, as he was well known throughout the island for his brains, and didn't find having his best quality made fun of. Rhythm huffed, crossing her arms and continuing, "Just wait until she's done and then pay for her food. Try to leave n' she'll mutilate his body until it ain't recognizable anymore, hmm. If that's too vague, just tell Rhythm and she will explain it to him in a more detailed way, yeah. 'Cause, she'd totally do that if he wanted, ya know, hmm."

Without waiting to see if her previous opponent had actually done what she had asked of him, Rhythm resumed her walk until she reached the young man's table and slid in across from him. He didn't notice her due to his reading of a small yet thick black book, giving her a moment to take in his appearance. Though he was slouching, he appeared to be quite tall—slightly over six feet, for sure. His slicked back spiky hair had quite an odd combination of colours, being mainly black but also sporting many random blonde strands scattered about his head in various places.

Sighing deeply, the man looked up from the book to locate his glass of water, though it was half empty. He finally took notice of the woman across from him, resulting in him becoming extremely startled and quite abruptly jumping backwards—gigantic axe and all—onto the table behind him from shock, knocking into the table that had previously seperated him and the woman as he did so. Luckily, it was rooted down to the floor—though the harsh yet indirect impact definitely loosened it considerably.

"Is Rhythm really that scary, hmm?" Rhythm smirked through half-lidded eyes, tilting her head to the side as she observed the unusual man while simultaneously rubbing her left eye sleepily.

The man, whose height was almost identical to the height Rhythm had assumed it to be, cautiously walked back to his table, "Who are you?" he asked as he sat down once more. He glanced towards the many sweets and delicacies he had spread out before him, making sure none had gone missing when he freaked out. Out of the six dessert dishes on the table, Rhythm did not see a single healthy dish, which she found odd, considering his physical appearance.

"Rhythm is Rhythm," she replied dully, before drawling slowly, "How good is he with that axe, huh?"

The tall and muscular man glanced towards the axe on his back—though he never got all that good of a view of it when he did so, due to the fact that his neck obviously was unable to spin 180 degrees like an owl's could. He then turned back towards the lime-green haired woman, "Just fine, why?"

Rhythm, without fully realizing it, began to size his skills up from his physical appearance. She had become quite good at that over the years, having had much opportunity to practice in determining the strengths and weaknesses of enemies at first sight.

By the looks of his well-toned and muscular body, he had immense strength. Definitely far more than she had with her arms, but probably much less than with her legs, though since his were under the table, she couldn't see to be sure. Still, she decided that the entirety of his strength from all over his body must be quite incredible, which gave him an advantage in that aspect. His arms were probably the most honed areas of his entire body, due to having to wield that gigantic axe with both great precision and speed, while the rest of his body wasn't strained near as much.

Rhythm decided that this man was quite the formidable opponent, though she knew she would be able to overpower him in a fight due to her considerably greater amount of fighting experience as well as because of her higher skill level. Still, this man had the makings of an extremely powerful fighter, and she would greatly appreciate having him on her pirate crew. He could very possibly be quite useful.

Rhythm sighed in mock exasperation at his clipped reply, "Look kid, Rhythm is a new pirate captain, and she'd like it if he joined her crew," she drawled in a sleepy voice, eyes drooping slightly.

His grey eyes immediately widened in shock, and the large man abruptly shot back and pressed himself even harder against the back of his seat. 'That couldn't have been comfortable, hmm,' she thought to herself. "My my, axe-man sure gets startled easily," she droned.

"Wha—hey! First of all, I'm not even close to a kid! In fact, I'm probably older than you by a few years!" he exclaimed after finally regaining a small portion of his composition.

Rhythm nodded, lightly stabbing the table with the man's spoon, "Mhm, he's probably right."

The exasperated man huffed, "Then you can't call me kid!"

"Why not?" came the sleepy reply.

"B-because that would make you a kid too, of course!"

Rhythm tisked, shaking her head at the tanned man across from her, "Lighten up man; don't take words so literally, hmm." He gaped at her telling him to lighten up, obviously finding the statement to be quite ironic due to her gloomy attitude and appearance. If anything, it was her that needed to do some lightening up, and not him.

He growled, sitting low into his seat and crossing his muscular arms. He sat there sulking for a moment before suddenly jolting upright once more, "Ah! I almost forgot! Did you seriously just say that you're a pirate?!"

The pale woman nodded, absentmindedly replying with an, "Aye."

"And you want me to join your crew?"

An identical answer to her previous one was spoken, "Aye."

"You don't even know my name."

"Wha's his name, hmm?" she drawled out her words in a disinterested tone, staring at him dully through half-lidded eyes.

"Drake."

"Hmm, hmm."

"Outragous," he growled and crossed his arms once more, "Why would I want to become a pirate? If I did, I'd be constantly hunted down by marines, and have to fight all the time! That'd be really bothersome, you know."

Rhythm raised a green eyebrow, "Hmm. If the kid dislikes fighting, then why does he carry that axe on 'is back? It ain't really what most people include in their daily attire, hmm."

Drake huffed upon hearing the outrageous nickname again, "I never said I disliked fighting—"

"He did."

His eyebrows furrowed in irritation, "Indirectly, I guess. But that's only because it's so much work... not because I don't like doing it. In fact, I hate anything that involves work. Work is so troublesome."

Rhythm blinked, having not expected that kind of relation from a man who must have completed a very large amount of training in order to aquire such a strong and muscular body. Though she quite easily could have continued the banter further and relayed his obvious contradiction, she decided to go back to his previous question.

She sighed sadly, even though there was no reason for her to exhibit a negative attitude, and drawled, "He asked Rhythm why someone would wanna become a pirate and constantly be hunted by marines, so here's her answer, hmm. Rhythm thinks that being a pirate lets a person have complete freedom and fulfil their dreams. She also thinks that the marines are fun to have around."

"Fun?" the Drake furrowed his brows in confusion, "How so?"

"Rhythm gets to get better at fighting when she encounters them, and she also gets to have fun with their bodies once they're defeated. To put it simply, marines are jus' a bonus to her."

Her conversational partner sighed, "I suppose what you're saying makes sense, though I ain't really sure what you meant when you said that you get to have fun with their bodies...?"

"Oh," Rhythm smiled, surprising Drake, as it was the first positive emotion he'd seen her exhibit, "The art of torture is something Rhythm is well-educated in, and quite enjoys. When the situation calls for it, at least. That's what she meant."

Slightly disturbed at how casually the woman talked about torture, and with how creepy her smile had become as he realized what she meant, the slightly older man frowned, "I'd never become a pirate, anyways."

"Why not?"

"Besides the fact that it's so much work, I'd rather not be on the wrong side of the law."

Rhythm sighed gloomily, "If only he knew what the 'law' was capable of."

"What do you mean by—"

Before the young man could say any more, a group of marines burst into the restaurant, each sporting an expression that was a mixture between anger and determination. The man who appeared to be in charge—due to his slightly different uniform and more muscular build—looked directly at the man Rhythm had been conversing with, letting out a loud bellow, "Drake! You are under arrest for mass murder, the aiding of pirates, and maim to innocent people! Refusal to comply will result in us using force and you still coming with us; your execution sentence will remain the same."

Drake looked startled, and quickly stopped what he was about to say to Rhythm. He slowly stood up, shifting his gaze to look at the marine official and his group of followers, and then to all of the people in the restaurant, who all of which had their eyes on him. Rhythm sighed dramatically and leaned the left side of her cheek onto her lightly clenched left hand, that was supported by her elbow, which was firmly fixed to the table. It was all quite amusing to her.

A thick shadow appeared over the said man's eyes as he listened to the various comments of the other customers in the restaurant as they talked amongst themselves.

"Finally he gets what he deserves!"

"Stupid scum."

"I've been waiting for this for years!"

"Good riddance."

"Finally we don't have to be scared to let our children play outside!"

Rhythm watched Drake's face carefully. His fists were clenched tightly and as a result, they were shaking. His teeth were gritting together loudly. She was waiting until he finally blew up and lashed out, which was almost inevidable.

The marine in charge of the arrest came over and put handcuffs onto Drake's wrists after roughly pulling them behind his back. His face was still shadowed, and everyone's eyes remained upon him. That's why it was such a surprise when his tight fists loosened, his clenched jaw unclenched, and most of all when he aburptly burst out in an almost deranged sort of laughter.

When he finally finished, he flashed a wide yet bitter smirk at everyone around him, "You all hate me, I know. But who cares, really? I'm practically in a prison of my own as it is, so being in a literal one won't be much different. Besides, less moving around, and therefore less effort."

With that said, Drake willingly let himself be guided out by the marines into their newly-built prison, the bitter smirk still quite prominant on his lightly tanned face.

Rhythm tisked three times, shaking her head as she did so. What a mess; now she had to break into a prison. So many things could and probably would end up going wrong. Oh well, at least her potential first mate would be far more likely to join her crew if she did this for him. But first things first: she had to get information. If she broke into the building without any information, she'd be easily found out. She also had to formulate a plan, and quickly if she wanted to get Drake out before it was too late.

After the murmers had settled down considerably and everyone had resumed talking in normal tones, Rhythm called the waitress who had met her at the door over to her table. Perhaps she knew more of her potential first mate.

"Yes?" the waitress smiled brightly, appearing a lot more at ease without Drake around.

"Rhythm wants to ask her something, hmm... about the man who just got arrested."

The young girl's dazzling smile dampened upon hearing the green haired woman's words, morphing into an ugly scowl that matched Rhythm's usual expression, "You're lucky he got arrested when he did. Any later, and he might have turned on and then killed you, too."

Mentally rolling her eyes at the foundationless statement, despite her own fault of assuming the worst without any grounds for her assumptions, Rhythm pressed further, "Does she mind telling Rhythm why it seems as though everyone in Sharuu Port despises his existance, hmm, hmm?"

The brown-haired girl frowned, "I wasn't home on the day it happened—in fact, I was away on a camping trip with my father. My friend, who also happens to work here, experienced it all first hand, but she never talks about it. I think she even used to be friends with that guy. Want me to get her for you?"

Rhythm nodded, choosing not to reply. Despite wanting to know more about Drake, she was also concerned about the negative possibilities of what could happen if the young waitress were to go and fetch the other girl she spoke of. Perhaps she was clumsy and would trip and fall on her way there, and by some odd chance would be a noble, and would get angry at Rhythm for making her make the extra trip to the kitchen, which would eventually lead to an admiral coming after her. 'That'd be quite horrid, hmm.'

The young waitress flashed the odd customer a smile before bouncing away and shouting behind her, "Kaykay! But I'll warn you, she probably won't talk to you about it!"

As soon as she was out of sight from the green-haired woman, the blue-eyed waitress began walking at a much slower pace, shuddering as she did so. After seeing her for the first time, she had thought that the woman was extremely pretty and had a perfect body, but after talking with her, she had been thoroughly creeped out. The talking in third person, the bored and dull expression mixed with a constant scowl, her way of drawing out her words slowly and sleepily, the spikey emo hairstyle and weird clothes—they were all the key factors that tended to scare others off, and this waitress was no exception. The young woman created a depressing air that dampened the mood of all around her.

She was quite glad that she no longer had to talk to her, and almost felt a bit bad for the friend she was fetching. Why the woman as so interested in that horrid man, the young brown-haired waitress had no idea.

"Kiyoshi!" came the loud call, causing a reserved red-haired girl to look up from the book she was reading, "Y-yes, Michi?"

"You heard about Drake being arrested a few minutes ago, right?" the young waitress—Michi, as revealed—asked.

Kiyoshi nodded, a sad look in her quiet green eyes.

Though she saw the forbidden expression on her friend's face, Michi ignored it, "Well anyways, there's this creepy girl who was sitting beside him—though I told her not to, of course—and they were talking before he was arrested. Afterwards, she was asking me if I knew more about him. Seemed pretty interested, though I have no idea why. Anyways, I said my friend knew more than I... meaning you, since you were there and all," she paused a moment to laugh off what she'd just said, "Don't worry, though, I'll just say you don't want to talk, 'kay?"

Once again taking note of how much her friend babbled, Kiyoshi sighed. She never usually wanted to talk about what happened on that day, both for his sake and so she wouldn't have to relive the memory. But whoever this woman was, she had ignored the warnings of villagers and went to sit with him anyways—something no one had ever done for him. She could never bring herself to do that, no matter how much she wanted to.

Perhaps this woman could help Drake in some way. Maybe talking would be in Drake's best interest this time. Kiyoshi didn't know for sure, so she decided that she would see what the woman her friend was talking about was like, and why she was curious. If the answer satisfied her, she would then reveal Drake's past.

"I'll do it," Kiyoshi blurted out, standing up quite abruptly. In fact, the abruptness was so great that it caused her head to momentarily spin, black spots blurring her vision.

Michi stopped mid-rant upon hearing her friend, "Wha... how... but, why?" she exclaimed.

"I have my reasons," the red-haired girl squirmed, meekly looking up at her friend.

Michi sighed, before waving her hand dismissively, "Fine, go and see for yourself. I garuntee you that you won't even say one sentence before being too freaked out to go on. She's so creepy and depressing!"

Kiyoshi shrugged, before exiting the kitchen and going on towards their waiting customer.

XxxxXxxxX


	5. Episode 5

[Red Shull restaurant - Sharuu City]

During the past few minutes, Rhythm had found great fascination in an intricate yet repeating wall pattern in a certain small area—so small that it was hardly noticable to the human eye. It appeared that whoever was painting forgot to paint another layer over the wallpaper in that area so as to completely cover it.

A waitor had come and asked her if she wanted anything to eat. The green-haired girl had nodded and then proceeded to order almost every dish on the menu, leaving the waitor flabbergasted and the riddle master gaping in horror as he mentally calculated how much he would have to pay. A smirk had formed on Rhythm's pale lips when she saw the latter of the two reactions occur. The man, alone in his own booth, angrily muttered to himself about how he would never again offer to pay for any of the promotions going on at Randy's Riddles.

Out of the corner of her eye, Rhythm saw a short girl with red hair and green eyes approaching—her appearance indicating that she couldn't be any older than fourteen, though her wise and experienced eyes told a different story. Someone with those eyes had to be around twenty. Was this the friend her waitress had mentioned? Most likely.

"H-hi, you're the girl Michi talked about, r-right?" the red haired female stuttered as she hesitantly slid into the seat across from the said female.

"Si," Rhythm replied almost immediately after she'd finished speaking, "Rhythm is guessing that she's the one that waitress mentioned, correct?"

She blushed skightly as the attention was now focused on her, "Y-yes. My name is Kiyoshi, and I came to talk to you a-about Drake."

"Speak on then, hmm," Rhythm drawled out her words in a lengthy fashion. Kiyoshi gazed upon her skeptically, the woman's sleepy expression tempting her to believe that she might just fall asleep while the red-haired girl was talking.

"I-I need to know why you want to know... before I tell you anything," Kiyoshi mumbled in a rapid fashion, almost too fast and blurred for Rhythm to comprehend. Almost.

Though she was slightly irritated by the the girl's untrust, despite her own tendency to never trust anyone, it was necessary for her current situation that Rhythm get information out of her. For that reason alone, she put up with her behavior and modified her backstory a little so that it was still true, yet left out key parts that would have made Kiyoshi recoil and close off.

"Hmm," she sighed, yawning, "Well ya see, Rhythm is a sailor, and she wants for Drake to join her crew. She s'poses that it's always been her dream to travel and explore the seas, but she knows that she can't do so alone. Therefore, Rhythm wishes to have another sailor aboard."

Kiyoshi bit her lip, analyzing the explanation given her. The woman was odd, that was for sure; yet somehow Kiyoshi didn't feel as though the woman wanted to hurt or harm Drake in any way. She seemed to have honest intentions, despite the gloomy air about her, and didn't appear to be lying.

"Drake and I used to be b-best f-friends until about three years ago," the young redhead looked to her conversational partner to confirm that she did indeed want to hear the entire story and had not yet fallen asleep. After receiving an tired "go on," Kiyoshi continued her recount of the past.

"Three years ago, a huge p-pirate ship pulled up to our port. Having never encountered pirates b-before, we didn't really k-know what to do, so we unwisely c-chose to treat them like any other g-group of tourists. A group of docksmen went out to our main p-port and greeted them, but they were k-killed on the spot," Kiyoshi took a few deep calming breaths before continuing.

Rhythm listened closely as the redhead spoke—not out of curiosity, but out of necessity. If she didn't know everything, the plan she had begun creating the second Drake was captured could very well go awry. A lack of information was by far more deadly than anything else in an operation. Information is power, and power is key.

"Here's your food," a male waitor bowed slightly, filling the entire booth with many dishes, all piled high with many delicious foods. Rhythm could hardly wait for the waiter to finish organizing the plates so that she could dig in.

Meanwhile, Kiyoshi's green eyes had widened to the size of pizzas as she stared the the gigantic amount of food her conversational partner had ordered, "You c-can't possibly eat all that in one s-sitting!" she exclaimed.

Rhythm yawned, "Watch me, hmm. Actually, scratch that, just keep talking."

Huffing slightly, Kiyoshi continued her plight, "O-okay. Well, the pirates then proceeded to r-rampage through our village, s-slaughtering anyone they saw. It was horrible. Drake was the o-only person in the village who could t-truly fight, and he did so. I remember it so c-clearly...

 _*flashback*_

 _"That's not even fair," a younger Kiyoshi grumbled, crossing her arms and forming an angry pout on her pale pink lips._

 _Drake, who lacked some of the muscle and height he now occupied in the present time, smirked widely, "Really now? I beat you fair in square, and I did it without even having to bring out my axe."_

 _Kiyoshi closed her eyes and slumped down against a tall tree with blue-ish white bark. After a few seconds, she open one eye to glare at her best friend, "Still n-not fair. Besides, that's only b-because you were too lazy t-to bring out your axe."_

 _Drake shrugged as he began walking towards her, "Well, the lazy part is true—actually, I prefer calling it 'refraining from strenuous activities so that the body is fully charged for any circumstance that requires full strength,' instead. But none of that changes the fact that I beat you in a fight within five seconds of you attacking me, and without my axe," he crouched down in front of her and smirked, "Besides, if I had brought out my axe, I could have hurt you, and your rich daddy wouldn't have liked to find out his daughter was 'wasting her time with some poor ignorant idiot,' hey?"_

 _Kiyoshi frowned, but didn't disagree. What he said had been true, as much as she willed it not to be. Her father owned one of the most fancy restaurants in South Blue—the Red Shull, and it was a major tourist attraction for their small port island. Hence, they had a considerable amount of money. Her father was a vain man who obsessed over how his family presented themselves to others, throwing fits over the slightest crease on his wife or daughter's clothes, or the smallest flaw in how they behaved in public. That was part of why Kiyoshi liked Drake—in the time she spent with him, she was able to forget about behaving properly for the time being. They mostly spent time together in the forest—the one place her father wouldn't look for her._

 _He sat down beside her, leaning his muscular back against the same tree as she was resting upon, though his body was turned away from her due to the tree not being wide enough for them both to lean on it while facing the same direction._

 _"Why do you even l-like that axe, anyways? It's annoying," Kiyoshi huffed, crossing her arms._

 _Drake smiled widely, eyes closed and face tilted upwards in an attempt to catch some of the fleeting breeze, causing it to ruffle his short white-streaked black hair, "A man who I really look up to used to use an axe similar to mine to fight."_

 _Realizing she had never heard about this before, Kiyoshi opened her eyes and tilted her head slightly to face him, "Used to? What d-does he use now?"_

 _Drake's smile stiffened, "He doesn't use anything now... he's gone."_

 _Kiyoshi frowned, "I don't get it. But why was s-some guy so inspirational to y-you, anyways?"_

 _Her best friend's tight smile smoothed out, a boyish expression coming over his face as he began recounting the tale, "Remember that one time when I was eight, when my parents actually let me go on one of their voyages? Well, we were on an island once and were investigating some rumour about a pirate crew who was disrupting a protected island, and happened upon a crew of—"_

 _Drake's eyes suddenly snapped open, his hands immediately reaching for his axe. His younger friend looked up to him in alarm, observing his alert expression. His movements had been too quick for Kiyoshi's eyes to observe, and therefore to her it seemed as though he had simply teleported from a sitting position to a defensive stance._

 _Suddenly, Drake snatched up Kiyoshi and threw her over his shoulder, jumping far back in an attempt to evaluate the situation better. As they did so, a blade cut straight through the area of the tree his redheaded friend had been leaning her back against. A man wearing rugged and torn clothing appeared, his face littered in scars and his eyes possessing a demented gleam. He held a narrow sword at his side, pointing it at Drake while hollering, "Time for you to die, you pathetic dog!"_

 _Drake dodged every attack the man—who he had identified as a small-time pirate due to his clothing and the pirate symbol upon his tattered shirt which he didn't recognize—threw at him, all-the-while making sure his terrified best friend was safe from any attack thrown at them. She clung to him tightly, clenching her eyes tightly , Drake pulled out his axe and slammed the blunt end of it down onto the offending man's head, causing his body to crumple to the ground and his sword to fall out of his now-loose hand and clatter against the stone it fell upon briefly, before landing softly in the grass, halting its descent._

 _The axe-weilding man set Kiyoshi down, looking at her with a concerned expression, "Stay here and hide somewhere where no one will find you, okay? There's definitely trouble in the village. If I'm right, pirates are invading Sharuu City and probably the surrounding villages too. I doubt their intentions are anything less than slaughtering every person in their sight."_

 _Kiyoshi began to grumble, but stopped short when she saw her best friend's expression—it was obvious that he was quite worried about her, "Whatever," she sighed, "But d-don't you dare d-die on me."_

 _Drake pulled her into her chest and hugged her tightly, before pulling back and winking at her and then heading off into the forest and to the direction of the main city on Sharuu Port, "I promise!"_

 _*end of flashback*_

"Was the extra dialog near the beginning really necessary, hmm?" Rhythm asked in annoyance, shifting her position on the booth a little in order to acheive a more comfortable position.

Ignoring her, Kiyoshi continued, "I-I stayed in the forest, waiting f-for Drake to come back. After waiting for over an hour, I couldn't stay there any l-longer and so I ventured out towards Sharuu City, where Drake h-had gone. What I saw was absolutely horrifying."

As she had been speaking, Rhythm had shoved as much food as possible down her throat, swallowing it before interrupting, "If it was just a bunch of blood, gore and dead bodies that was so horrifying to Kiyoshi, then skip it. You civilians are lame, hmm."

Kiyoshi furrowed her narrow red brows at the woman's indifferent attitude, but decided to continue on—though a bit more hesitantly this time, "Y-yes, there were a bunch of dead b-bodies everywhere, and they weren't just the bodies of the invading pirates. Lots of t-them were the corpses of people I knew and cared about, but that wasn't the most horrifying thing."

Rhythm scowled, rolling her eyes as she mentally wished the child-faced woman would just hurry up and get to the point already. If the redhead had simply told the reason why Drake was so hated at the beginning of her long tale, Rhythm could have already been at wherever they had taken the recently arrested man and saved him.

"The w-worst part was that it was Drake who had killed them."

Rhythm's usual scowl morphed into the tiniest of smirks, her lips curling upwards slightly, pleased at having finally gotten somewhere. Now all she had to do was listen to why he'd done it, because that would help her judge the character of her possible soon-to-be first mate.

Kiyoshi bit her lip, green eyes wide and blinking furiously in a pitiful attempt to keep tears from flowing out of her eyes. Her efforts were to no avail, and before long the redhead was crying waterfalls. Rhythm rolled her eyes, scowling at the pathetic girl in front of her. How shameful were the emotions that attached one person to another; all they did was make one weak. Just like her father. Caring about someone else only causes them to become a liability.

"H-his eyes were blinded by blood and a long gash that had been created by either a sword or knive ran across o-one of his eyes, so it was i-impossible for him to tell w-who were pirates and who were cityfolk. But if h-he would have assumed anyone were cityfolk, he c-could have easily been killed if they turned out to b-be a pirate. When I got there, though, all of the pirates e-except for their captain were dead, but Drake didn't know this. As t-the captain silently walked towards him, Drake continued k-killing off the villagers who tried to stop his r-rampage, thinking they were pirates attacking him." Kiyoshi took yet another deep breath before continuing. Rhythm noted to herself that it was probably troubling for the redhead to recount a story which seemed to remind her of events from the past which were mentally difficult for her to recall. Though, did Rhythm care? Not even a little.

"Those who c-came anywhere near him died at his hands; I remember how one w-woman yelled at him to stop, calling h-him by name, just before he killed her. The t-truth that he had accidentally been killing off the same people he was t-trying to protect must have sh-shocked him, because he immediately f-froze, not even batting an eyelid when he heard the captain swinging his short-sword d-down into his b-back. I had picked up a g-gun from an unconsious pirate when I was coming into the city, just in case I needed to defend myself a-against any still-living pirates. When I saw the pirate captain go to kill Drake, I shot him dead from behind. The guilt and nightmares still haunt me to this day," the red-haired girl shuddered, her light green eyes glazing over for a moment as she most likely recalled some of dreadful nightmares she had at night about the incident. Rhythm herself was no stranger to nightmares due to also having a troubling past, so she decided not to make a snarky comment. This time.

"What did she do about Drake to calm him down, hmm?" Rhythm questioned instead.

"I just called his name," Kiyoshi frowned, recalling the events.

 _*flashback*_

 _"DRAKE, IT'S OVER! Please d-don't h-hurt anyone else!" Kiyoshi screamed, tears streaming down her face as she watched her best friend from afar._

 _Drake turned towards the younger girl, and though he couldn't see her, he followed her voice. Kiyoshi, having seen part of the horrific mass murder he had just conducted, instinctively took a couple steps backward. Drake heard her do so, and furrowed his black brows in deep anguish, as the action of his closest friend stepping back in fear of him was deeply upsetting. He fell onto his hands and knees, jaw clenched so tightly it was beginning to go numb as he began to realize the full extent of what he'd done._

 _"Kiyoshi," Drake managed to growl out, his voice low and gutteral._

 _The said girl approached him, putting her hand on his shoulder to let him know that she was there, albeit a bit hesitantly, considering he was the one who had caused all of the deaths of the hundreds of bodies strewn around them._

 _Drake bit his lip, afraid to ask the inevidible question. The answer was one he was absolutely dreading to hear. Still, he had to ask it. "Did I... k-kill innocent villagers?"_

 _Kiyoshi forced a small laugh out, "H-hey, come on. Let's g-go get you cleaned up."_

 _Snarling, he fired out the question again, this time a lot more ferociously, "KIYOSHI! ANSWER ME, WOULD YOU?! Did I or did I not kill innocent villagers?"_

 _"You killed all of the pirates," she frowned, "Besides the captain, who I killed."_

 _Drake's voice lowered, taking on a dangerous tone, "Answer the question, Kiyoshi."_

 _Kiyoshi lowered her head, and in a sad voice replied, "Yes, you did."_

 _"How many?"_

 _"Do you really want—" she was cut off by a gutteral growl, indicating what he wanted quite well, "A bit o-over four h-hundred villagers, I'd say."_

 _Those were the words he'd been dreading. His initial assumption of the damage he'd caused was no where near as high as the number Kiyoshi had just told him. Unable to deal with the anguish his soul was in for doing something so atrocious to his own people, the very same people he had tried to protect, Drake's injured body collapsed into the earth beneath him, in a pool of his own blood._

 _XxxxXxxxX_

 _A/N: Here's episode number six. I realize this episode was a bit conversation heavy, allowing for longer paragraphs, which is hard to read... So I apologise for that. I'm not sure when I'll be posting the next episode, but I'm shooting for in a week, since this week is really packed for me. Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the episode!(:_


	6. Episode 6

"...a-and when he woke up from the hospital, the d-doctors declared he had amnesia. Apparently it was all too much for him t-to take, and his body had automatically taken pre-preventative measures in an effort to save him unbearable mental distress."

Rhythm frowned as Kiyoshi finished re-telling the sad story, "Has he since remembered anything, hmm? He seemed pretty knowledgable of the reason the marines arrested him earlier."

Kiyoshi lowered her gaze, focusing on a portion of the tinted glass table, barely visible through all the dishes stacked on top of it, "The vi-villagers have used enough information in their insults to pretty much fill him in on what h-happened. Though, since our involvement with each other w-was secret, he hasn't been told a thing about me. It hurts so m-much to see the blank unrecognition in his eyes every t-time our gazes happen to meet."

"Boorrring," she interrupted in a dull drawl as the girl began speaking of their unrepaired friendship in order to stop her from continuing. "So, why wasn't he arrested earlier then, hmm?" Rhythm queried, "Rhythm noticed that there was a miniscule jail besides the newly built marine base."

"Miniscule?" the redhead questioned, giggling a little at the weird woman's odd way of wording things, "Well, b-because of his seemingly permanent amnesia, Drake didn't fit into Sharuu City's r-requirements to go to jail f-for his crime. There also w-wasn't what anyone c-considered a secure enough j-jail for him to be put into. I'm n-not quite sure the exact r-reason they've taken him in n-now."

The waitor who had both taken down her order and delivered her food approached Rhythm's table, fully expecting to have to throw out a lot of good food. What took him by absolute surpise, though, was when he saw that every single plate had been cleaned dry.

"Y-you couldn't have possibly eaten _all_ of this!" he exclaimed in absolute shock, "That's just not possible!"

The dumbfounded man rapidly searched scoured the entire area, including the ground outside of the open window by Rhythm's table, in hopes to find the missing food. Upon finding nothing, and hearing another affirmation from Rhythm that she had indeed eaten all of the food he had served her, the waiter shook his head in amazement, "No way. That's insane."

Behind them, the riddle master scowled. He had become incredibly bored and thought about ditching the creepy woman many times, but he knew he couldn't get away with it since his defeat was quite public, and a number of citizens would be angry with his doing so. He'd surely become the laughing stock of the town if he disgraced himself like that.

"Rhythm is guessing he meant to ask how her meal was going, hmm?" Rhythm remarked cheekily.

The uncomposed waitor shook his head once more, "Y-yeah! That's _exactly_ what I meant to ask."

"Eh, well the answer to that question is that Rhythm is still~ hungry, yet ain't got enough time to order more food. He can go now."

Once the waitor had left, and the attention had been removed from her, Rhythm tilted her head to the side and looked at the girl with droopy eyes as she remembered what she had said earlier, "Involvement is what Kiyoshi said before, yeah? So she and Drake were together then, hmm?"

Kiyoshi's eyes widened even larger than when she had seen the amount of food Rhythm had ordered and ate. Her face flushed tomato red and her hands extended outwards as she began waving them around wildly, "N-no! O-of course not! We're j-just friends!"

"Maybeeee so," she drawled out slowly, "but due to her behavior it seems as though she—"

This time it was Kiyoshi who did the interrupting, " _No way!_ You have it all w-wrong!"

Rhythm decided to let her temporary source of amusement go for the time being, sipping on a glass of water, "Back to what she was saying. If she feels so upset when he doesn't recognise her, then why doesn't she just tell him about herself? She must be really dumb if she hasn't even done that."

Once again, the redhead lowered her green eyes, becoming suddenly fascinated with the table, "I, uh, kind of became a h-hero in the city for shooting down the pirate c-captain, while Drake became known as the worst of the worst, even though he got rid of all the other pirates and I only e-eliminated one."

Rhythm tisked, shaking her head, "So she refuses to talk to him because she thinks he hates her, correct?"

Surprised that she seemed to understand her point of view so well, Kiyoshi took a while to nod rapidly in response, "Mmhm!"

Rhythm blinked, staring her in the eye, "That is extremely idiotic and stupid."

Immediately taking offense, Kiyoshi huffed, "Ugh! You're so frustrating!"

The green haired woman nodded in agreement, "Aye, Rhythm agrees."

"Huh?"

"She just stated that Rhythm was 'so frustrating,' as you put it. Why question her response when she agrees with her, then? That's really stupid of Kiyoshi." Rhythm scowled outwardly, but inwardly she was smirking, having only agreed with the girl in order to state this exact response.

Kiyoshi shook her head in exasperation, "Why would you agree to my s-saying something bad about your character?!"

Rhythm tilted her head backwards, finishing her cup of water, "She ain't bothered by thingssss that are true, only by things that are untrue. _B'sides_ ," she drawled out her words slowly, "Rhythm has heard that 's less troublesome to agree with things others say in order to use less breath and hence save on the usage of one's windpipe."

Deciding that she could never win with the green-haired woman, Kiyoshi sighed before remembering something that must have been important, if the look on her face were anything to judge by.

"By the way, what are you p-planning to do now that I've told you Drake's b-backstory?" she questioned curiously.

Rhythm stroked her non-existant beard, her expression dull and sleepy eyes half-closed, "Ehhhh, Rhythm might as well break inta the Marine base 'n break him out, hmm."

Kiyoshi blinked, "You're joking... right?"

Rhythm blinked back, "Rhythm never jokes."

Ignoring her confusing statement, the redhead shook her head rapidly from side to side while frowning, "No, no, what I mean is wh-why would you go so far as to get on the b-bad side of the law and prob-probably even go to jail y-yourself, and all for a guy you hardly know?"

Sighing, the green-haired woman stood up from her seat, enjoying the feeling of her back and elbows cracking, "Whats wrong with her head, hmm? She must've been dropped as a chiiiiiild, cuz her lack of brains is really startin' to annoyin' Rhythm." She sighed dramatically and turned away from the girl before drawling sleepily, "Boo. If Rhythm's already on the bad side of the law, then why should it matter to her if she's gonna go commit yet 'nother crime? She'll have marines coming at 'er either way. Besidessssss, she has done many things worse than breakin' inta some dumb marine base."

With flabbergasted being the only word to truly describe her expression, Kiyoshi looked up at Rhythm with wide eyes, stuttering even more than usual and with obvious fear in her voice, "W-what? Y-you're a c-criminal already? What k-k-kind of criminal are you, th-then?"

Though her facial expression remained dull and bored, Rhythm's forest green orbs gleamed with an odd sort of fire as she replied, "Rhythm is a pirate."

With that said, the mysterious green-haired woman suddenly vanished from Kiyoshi's sight.

XxxxX

"May I help you?" a smiling middle-aged woman of small stature asked her green-haired customer, who also happened to be carrying a black stuffed animal of some kind—the store's dim lights made it impossible for her to distinguise exactly what the animal was, though Rhythm however knew it was a black stuffed rabbit. It was evening, and the lights shining out from other stores around the area were the only things illuminating the dusty street. The lime green-haired woman had just entered into the store, the jingling of the bells on the door being the only reason the older woman had been alerted of her new customer's presence.

"Yeah, s'pose so. That's kind of what yer for. Rhythm would like a construction worker outfit," Rhythm informed the construction shop owner.

The shorter woman looked confused, "Rhythm? Is that someone you know?"

Scowling in annoyance, Rhythm jabbed a thumb towards herself as she growled, "Rhythm is Rhythm."

Glancing around the store and seeing nobody else in it, the other woman suddenly realized that Rhythm had been talking about herself in third person, "Oh! You mean yourself!"

"Si, as Rhythm has already stated. Are you deaf, or just dumb?"

"Well, you didn't really. I mean—" the woman began to argue, but her customer cut her off.

"Silence. Will she find her the outfit Rhythm asked for? 'Cause if she doesn't, she must really suck as a store owner."

"Fine," the woman huffed, bristling at how she had been cut off and then demanded of, and not to mention insulted.

"Is that really the best way for her to treat her customers?" Rhythm asked evenly, though the woman was able to hear it quite well.

The construction supplies store owner clenched her fists but chose not to reply, instead deciding to continue her search for the requested outfit. Finally finding it, she rushed back out to the main area, hoping her sole customer hadn't already left. Actually, in a way she actually had hoped the green-haired woman had already departed, though the majority of her wanted her to stay so she could make more money. Then again, if she thought about it honestly, 'majority' may be too high of an amount.

"Come to the till," the older woman called to Rhythm, having already set out three pairs of the same construction worker outfits out so that she could examine the green-haired woman and decide which one would fit her best. She was quite good at that, after all.

Complying, Rhythm went. She stood with a bored expression in front of the store owner, waiting with an annoyed scowl as she was examined.

"Five foot seven inches is your height, am I right?"

Rhythm nodded, "And a half."

'I was wrong?' the woman exclaimed silently to herself, 'Well, that's a first.'

"She is right in saying Rhythm's height is five foot seven inches," Rhythm stated suddenly, after seeing the woman's surprised expression.

The older woman gave her customer a confused glance, "Huh? But you just said that you were five foot seven and a half?"

Rhythm tisked, sleepy eyes drooping dangerously low, "They're all so stupid. Why must e'ryone assume that what Rhythm is talking about has ta do with the situation at hand? She is not."

"So... you just randomly said 'and a half' for no reason whatsoever."

"Wrong. Rhythm had a grand reason."

Confused, the costume store owner queried, "What? You did? What was it, then?"

"Rhythm was exercising her vocal cords."

Shaking her head in dismay, the middle aged woman clenched onto the best-fitting construction worker outfit and handed it to her frustrating green-haired customer, "Here you go," she said through clenched teeth.

Rhythm gave the woman the cash required for her purchase, and then tossed her outfit onto her forearm, making sure it was balanced enough to not fall off.

"May Rhythm ask why she is clenching her jaw so hard?" Rhythm tilted her head to the side with a mocking expression.

"Have a nice day," the older woman gritted out, whipping around and heading into a back room where customers were not allow to trespass.

Rhythm sighed in mock sadness, "Could it have been something Rhythm said?"

XxxxX

A middle-aged marine with a worn, wrinkled face sighed as he continued to stare at all the paperwork he had to do. It seemed almost impossible to get it all done before it was due. The tired man couldn't wait until the building of the base was complete. It had gone on far too long, and he had received far too much paperwork to complete ever since the construction began.

The main door to the newly-built and almost complete marine base in Sharuu City opened, causing the previously mentioned marine to look up from his position at his desk, "Can I help you, ma'am?"

The visitor seemed to be a construction worker. Though the construction suit was baggy and quite the opposite of the word tight, its wearer still was quite obviously female. This analysis was due to the woman's prominant breasts which still managed to be quite visible even though the suit was quite loose, as well as because of her long, waist-length green hair. Large, dark sunglasses shielded the woman's eyes from the harsh lighting around her, though their purpose was more-so for her disguise. If anyone were to recognise her, though she was doubtful anyone would due to her lack of a bounty, her plan would go awry.

"Rhythm was hired by Leiutenant Commander Kai to help in the construction of this marine base," the woman drawled, covering her mouth with a pale hand as she yawned loudly.

The marine scrunched up his face in confusion, "Who is Rhythm?'"

The woman gestured towards herself.

Though slightly put off by the woman's odd way of speaking and the fact that she both looked and talked like she was about to fall asleep any minute, the marine motioned for his visitor to come closer as he rummaged through his papers, trying to find the records of all hired workers, "Aw man! I can't find anything in this mess! I should really clean my desk up sometime. Oh well. Anyways, both the Leiutenant Commander and the Leiutenant are out at the moment, but if you need anything before you start work tomorrow, just ask! At least, I'm assuming you'll start tomorrow morning, since it's already past supper and all the other workers are gone for the day, ha ha."

The light spikes on the woman's silky green hair shifted slightly in various directions as she nodded, "Yeah, a copy of the layout for this building would be greeeaaaatly appreciated."

"Ahh," the marine groaned, laughing sheepishly, "I'm not sure if I can give you that. See, I'd get in trouble if I did, since you're not in charge of the construction, and I definitely want to avoid any trouble, if possible."

"Layout," she growled stubbornly.

"Huh?"

"Hand the layout to her and she'll look 'em over tonight," the green-haired woman explained, making sure to gesture towards herself as she spoke so as to cause less confusion for the unintelligent man she was speaking to, "Then, before work begins tomorrow, she'll give them back to him."

The man scratched his head, "Ah, I guess. Just to make sure, though... the 'she' you keep mentioning is yourself, right? Not some other woman?"

An unenthusiastic response of confirmation was given to him.

"Alrighty then, here you go!" the marine laughed, foolishly handing over the layout of the marine base, "Man, I surprised myself in being able to find those in this mess, ha ha! Then again, this paper is most important, so I never let it get lost."

The green-haired woman nodded, clutching onto the rolled-up papers, "She'll be back with these before she begins work."

The marine waved her off, desperately not wanting to be caught by anyone, "You'd better be! Now go quickly!"

After being completely shooed out of the base, the doors slammed shut behind her. She suddenly disappeared, reappearing upon the sidewalk of the closest street, pale hands clutching the complete layout of the marine base as she studied it intently through half-lidded eyes.

"Phase one complete."

XxxxXxxxX

A/N: So, this episode was a little shorter than normal. And I changed how Rhythm talked a bit, too. I'll have to go back and change it in my other episodes too later. Anyways, that's it for today! Hope y'all enjoyed this, haha. I'm having a lot of fun with this story! XD


	7. Episode 7

"How interesting, hmm," Rhythm commented as she studied the layout of the marine base, before biting into her peanut-butter lathered piece of toast. It was neither too hot nor too cold, but instead the perfect temperature. The thick, cool peanut butter she had originally spread onto the toasted piece of bread had since melted a little on the hot toast, creating the perfect creamy texture. Her black stuffed rabbit was held upright against her body by the inside of Rhythm's arm, long ears flopped over, so that she could freely use both of her hands.

Rhythm knew there was a risk in reading the layout like this, before the building was completed. She knew that she may go in expecting a certain area to be there, while it very well could not have yet been built, therefore throwing her entire plan off. Still, she had a feeling that close to everything had been built in and all that needed to be done yet were the finishing touches. The reason she had this feeling was due to her witnessing the marines now taking in prisoners—a sure sign that the building was at least secure enough to contain them in their cells and for a little while if they were to somehow manage to escape.

Rhythm frowned from her position at the table on her ship, which Regis had placed below deck, as she took in her last piece of toast. Now she'd had to go put in more pieces of toast; how distressing. The worst part about doing so was all the negative possibilities that could occur by doing so. Perhaps after putting the toast in and heating the toaster, she would forget to watch the bread, and the toaster would catch fire to her ship, and then the ship would burn down, leaving her with no method of transportation. Having a lack of transportation may mean that there is a less likely chance of Drake agreeing to become apart of her crew. That wouldn't do at all.

Despite her reservations about putting more toast in the manually heated toaster, Rhythm stood up, and headed over to where her toaster and many more pieces of un-toasted bread waited. She never had been able to stand untoasted bread, besides a couple certain exceptions.

As Rhythm placed four new pieces of bread into the toaster Regis had given her—the limit with having four slots, of course, or else she'd have placed in many more pieces—she reviewed everything she knew about the base. She quickly checked the settings on her toaster to make sure it was the perfect temperature for toast before walking calmly back over to her chair and sitting down. She continued making quick glances over to the device, making sure nothing bad happened.

Because the island of Sharuu Port was only a few days journey from Ringo Island, Rhythm had had the opportunity to learn a small amount of information about it from her fellow islanders before arriving. Well, through Regis, that was, since the villagers would simply run away at the sight of her. She had discovered that there was both a leiutenant and a leiutenant commander stationed at the base in Sharuu Port's capital—Sharuu City. She had known about Leiutenant Commander Kai from rumors, but had not heard of the Leiutenant stationed there with him until the marine with the messy desk had informed her of it.

Rhythm was quite confident in her fighting skills, and knew she would have an easy enough time beating the lieutenant, but the lieutenant commander was a whole other story. She was hoping that she wouldn't have to fight him, because even she was unsure of which of the two would come out as the victor. Even if she did somehow manage to beat him, she would be incredibly injured and that wouldn't be beneficial to her if any more complications arose between now and their journey to the next island.

A possible solution to is scenario was for Drake to fight the lieutenant while she battled the lieutenant commander. Of course, that would only be possible if she was to convince Drake that she could break him out, and get him to come with her. If she managed to do that, she would still have the responsibility of getting him to forgo his laziness and actually fight. Still, there were many things that could go wrong if she used Drake as her only trump card. For example, Drake's axe was most likely taken away, and they may be forced to fight the two before the axe is back in Drake's possession. An even worse yet still probable setback would be the two highest ranking officers approaching her even before she set Drake free.

By the clearly displayed layout of the base on the papers she carried, Rhythm knew exactly where the jail was, how it was set up, and practically everything else about it. She also knew the layout of the rest of the building. Luckily for her, she had photographic vision and was able to memorize everything shown to her on the design papers the second she looked at it. Having this ability was quite useful most of the time, though it also proved irritating at night when she would go to bed and have nightmares, during which she would experience every single detail—big or small—of her past.

Judging by the unfinished roof Rhythm had noticed upon entering the marine base last evening, the majority of the roof around the rest of the base most likely consisted of only rafters as well. This would prove quite advantageous for sleuthing around unnoticed, Rhythm decided. She knew it wasn't a foolproof idea though, because it was easily possible for a rafter to not be attached properly, causing her to fall down, and perhaps land in such as way that she is immobilized for the rest of her life. Even worse, perhaps on the fall down she would somehow gain a ton of weight, and die as an imprint in the ground. That wouldn't do at all.

Rhythm had formulated a semi-official plan just a few seconds after looking at the layout, but she had to think out the finishing touches before she went ahead with it. After having reviewed all the information she knew, her plan was complete. Of course, nothing ever went according to plan, and for that reason Rhythm had thought out a variety of other plans for each possibility. Now she could only hope that there hadn't been a possibility she hadn't thought of. Of course, there probably was one, she thought pessimistically to herself, which would cause the entire operation to go wrong.

There was one main thing that could make everything go awry, and Rhythm was quite aware of this. It was the possibility of either the Leiutenant or the Leiutenant Commander having devil fruits. There seemed to be a limitless amount of devil fruits, each coming with a different and sometimes incredibly unusual or powerful ability. Some were zoan types, where the user was able to transform into an animal. The second type was called a logia, where the user could actually transform into the element of their fruit. The only thing that would make someone able to defeat an opponent who had consumed a fruit like that was haki. She had learned a little about haki from the pirates she had previously sailed with, but never had anyone to teach it to her, and therefore didn't know how to harness it or put it to use during battle. She knew a bit about the theory behind it, but had no idea how actually do it.

It was the paramecia fruit, though, that Rhythm was most concerned about. Logias were the most rare, so it was highly unlikely for any of the marines stationed at this small South Blue marine base to have gotten ahold of one. The reason paramecias were so dangerous was because of their limitless abilities, each fruit having abilities uneasy to determine upon first glance unlike with the other two categories. Sometimes paramecia fruits could even be more powerful than the logia types. It all depended on the power contained within the fruit; the possibilities were endless.

Although it was far more likely for the marines stationed at the base in Sharuu City to not have a devil fruit, Rhythm knew that she must be prepared for any and every negative possibility. And positive possibility, but the idea of a positive thing happening was beyond Rhythm.

Knowledge is power, was her motto. Something seemingly small and pointless could destroy and disrupt an entire plan. For example, it was even possible for Drake to have aquired a devil fruit, though that was something Rhythm had already thought of and accommodated for.

Rhythm purposefully leaned way too far back in her chair, staring blankly at the ceiling as her head fell back and smacked down hard against the floor, creating a heavy pounding sensation inside of it. She sighed, realizing that she had the entire day to go before she would be able to complete the operation she had so thoroughly planned out. What to do, what to do.

Perhaps she should go and purchase some food for her future travels. She had long since used up the stock of food she had ordered to be placed on her ship before setting off from Ringo Isle. If she were going to have crew mates, she would be in need of food for both them and herself, and a lot of it, considering her tendency to eat such a large amount of food each meal. As of now, she'd already consumed thirty-two pieces of peanut butter toast, and her growling stomach still wasn't near satisfied.

Flipping backwards into a standing position, Rhythm pushed her chair back up into its original place beneath the side of the table and then walked up onto the main deck. She climbed up onto the tall lookout tower, and from that viewpoint, she was able to see a good portion of Sharuu City, and even a portion of one of the smaller towns just a few miles away from the main city. Remarkably, she could have cared less about the fabulous viewpoint she currently occupied, and chose to jump down from her ship and unintentionally obscure herself from the viewpoint.

Rhythm landed lightly on the ground, despite having come from such a high place. The reason sudden shock or pressure applied to her legs didn't affect her was due to her fighting style, which she had spent years perfecting, though even she would admit that she wasn't anywhere near mastery. Still, what she had accomplished in the period she had trained for was incredible, to say the least.

Rhythm felt a slight déjà vu as she once again began to scower the city—though this time, she was in search of a grocery store or food market instead of a restaurant. This task proved to be far less tedious than the first, and Rhythm soon found a large area in the centre of set set aside for a few dozen food stands, creating quite a nice-sized marketplace—by South Blue standards, that is. She entered the bustling area, weaving through the crowd of people.

A man at one of the booths to her right immediately begun selling his business upon seeing her. He approached the green-haired woman, and in a joyous tone he exclaimed, "Hello here! I'm Barte, and over at my stand we have the most delicious—"

"Goodbye," Rhythm nodded at the man, walking straight past him and towards the area of the marketplace that sold mostly food. She found it quite silly for booth owners to come up and try to get the attention of customers. If they needed the items being sold at that booth, then they would have come there already, and if a person was so easily swayed so as to buy something they didn't need simply because a booth owner made it seem appealing, then there wasn't much hope for humanity, in Rhythm's opinion. Perhaps normal individuals enjoyed having their ears talked off and wasting their money on things they didn't need, but Rhythm knew she didn't care much for it. Instead, she simply wanted to buy the items she required for sailing and get back to her ship as soon as possible.

Rhythm scanned the entire market within a few seconds, her photographic memory retaining every detail she saw. She noticed an unoccupied chair seated behind a booth that lacked an owner, who was probably off doing some quick errand, which had a sign propped up against it, reading, "Do not sit." Disregarding the sign, she sat herself upon the chair and leaned back, closing her eyes and thinking about her options and using the three-dimensional picture in her mind to do so.

The best types of food to buy for sea travelling were those that kept good over a long period of time, and did not rot easily. Unfortunately, maintaining a diet like that without any source of Vitamin C would easily cause for scurvy, which was annoying to acquire. Perhaps she should invest in some sort of tree or small garden when she got a larger ship, so that she could have fruits filled with the necessary Vitamin C readily available. It was pointless to do so now, however, since her ship was small and she would soon be discarding it.

"Hey, that's my chair!" an angered voice exclaimed, causing Rhythm to slowly open her eyes and look at the man who was yelling at her. He was middle aged with greying hair, and had a finger pointed accusingly at her.

Rhythm rolled her eyes, scowling at the fact that her train of thought had been interrupted. She stood up, grabbing her apple pie-shaped bag and completely ignored him as she walked away. The man turned and tried yelling after her to get some sort of explanation as to why she had so randomly sat in the chair behind his booth, but none was given him as the woman's green head of hair disappeared within the crowd.

She immediately came upon the stands who sold edible goods, and selected a variety of items that she deemed would be most suited for her journey. In addition to the foods that she could store over a long period of time, she also purchased some fruit, which she decided she would eat while they were still good. The rest of the food could be eaten after that was gone. Despite being a pirate, she paid the stand owners the money they asked her. That had been something her father had told her to do, after all. *Never deny someone what they have worked hardest for.*

She'd managed to get a couple large barrels which she'd used for storing all the food she'd purchased, causing more than a few people in the crowd to give her odd looks as she carried the two wooden cylindrical containers, one in each arm. She had attached her black stuffed rabbit to the necklace she always wore for this specific purpose. A tiny hole had been punched through the stuffed rabbit's left ear, where the detachable necklace looped through, so that she could keep it on her person while her arms were busy.

Wooden barrels in hand, Rhythm set off towards her ship to unload the excessively large amount of food she'd purchased.

XxxxX

"S-sir, you called?" a middle aged marine managed, squirming in discomfort and fear before Lieutenant Chargic, who was sitting at a large wooden desk looking down upon his receptionist.

"I did," came back the cold reply, his gaze unwavering and unnerving, doing nothing to ease the nervous receptionist.

The Lieutenant stared without saying a word to the lower ranking marine in front of him, each passing second causing the receptionist to become more and more terrified.

After a few moments of this—though it seemed more like an eternity for the receptionist—he finally got the courage to question the Lieutenant about the purpose of his visit. After stuttering out the question, his superior officer did not react in any way, nor give an answer for a good sixty seconds. At the end of that amount of time, Lieutenant Chargic suddenly bolted up from his chair, slamming his hands down upon his desk hard enough to cause the desk to immediately break beneath the sudden pressure. It cracked in half, each piece falling to their respective side with a loud *thud* while the wood directly under the man's two hands broke into shrapnel, the action and deadly expression on his face causing the already scared receptionist to back up against the wall opposite of the Lieutenant completely, his face as pale as a ghost's.

With an unnaturally loud voice, Lieutenant Chargic began to scream at his underling, "You stupid filthy pig! Do you really have the nerve to ask me what I called you in here for? Do you actually think that I wouldn't find out about you supposedly losing one of our very few layouts for this marine base? Do you know what could happen? *Do you?*" The terrified receptionist rapidly shook his head from side to side, causing his superior officer to stomp his foot, rattling the entire room. He continued his rant, "Anyone could find that and then use the knowledge to ambush our base, and kill everyone inside! Do you understand what you've done, you disgusting traitor? You're not fit to be a marine! As of now, I'm discharging you! Someone new and more fit for the task will take your place as receptionist. I'm through with you! Now, get out of my office before I show you just how angry I am!"

The ex-receptionist didn't need to be told twice. The second he heard of his dismissal, he bolted out of the office and down the hallways towards the exit, never once looking back.

Lieutenant Chargic groaned, his left hand covering a large portion of his face, "Ugh, this is bad." He picked up a mini Den Den Mushi, which had been sleeping up until this point, speaking into it, "Hello? Yes, this is Lieutenant Chargic. I would like an immediate boost in security around the base."

XxxxX

Sitting at the very top of her tiny vessel's lookout tower, Rhythm smirked widely. "Ah yes, choosin' ta not give the building plans back is gonna be amusing. Extra challenges jus' make a plan more fun, hmm."

 _XxxxXxxxX_

 _A/N: So, nothing all that interesting happening this chapter. Just Rhythm pessimistically planning out how she would infiltrate the local marine base, rudely ignoring overly-friendly salesmen, and causing a marine to get fired. Nothing that out of the ordinary. XD_

 _Oh, P.S., just wanted to say a special thanks to AnimePhysco1 who reviewed last chapter. Thanks so much!(:_


	8. Episode 8

A marine hurried down the hallway of the dimly lit marine base, rushing to make it to his post in time after having fallen asleep on the job and woken up with a start just moments previous. A dark figure watched him scurry past, her calculating green orbs following his every move like those of a prowling lion until he was completely out of sight.

Just inside of Sharuu City's newly built marine base was a tall black figure, crouching upon a rafter built at least twelve feet from the floor. Her black attire blended in perfectly with the dark shadows that came with night, allowing her to conceal her presence. The unfinished roof and exposed wooden beams made flitting through the base unnoticed a piece of cake.

As a silhouette, she was only able to be identified as female due to her large breasts, the tight black suit she was wearing leaving nothing to imagination. Her spiky long green hair was currently being hidden beneath a canny full body suit, as well as everything else about her, the only exception being her eyes, which her face mask had left exposed.

After having not sensed anyone coming from either direction for a few minutes, Rhythm began flitting forward from rafter to rafter, never once making a single noise or letting her presence be made known.

The jail was in itself a whole other section of the base, being completely closed off with the exception of the large and heavy metallic door that connected the base to the jail. To put it simply, there was only one way in and one way out, and she was guessing that she wouldn't be able to use rafters as a means of transportation to enter.

Turning down a new hallway, she stopped short. A bit before reaching the large metallic door, the series of exposed rafters she had encountered so far disappeared completely, having already been covered up with a new roof for the duration of the single hallway she had just approached. A young man was on janitor duty right smack in the middle of the area she needed to pass through. It was evident that she wasn't going to be able to pass by without him seeing her, and that also made encountering him inevitable.

The young male janitor hummed a quiet yet depressing tune as he mopped the already-clean floors, wishing he could be anywhere but there. He'd had a long and tiresome day, full of bad happenings. First, he had caught his long-time girlfriend cheating on him with his coworker. Then, he had found out that his trusty old mutt had been hit by a ship approaching the docks as the dog was swimming; he hadn't died, but he would surely cost his owner almost all of his money in veterinary bills. Thirdly, and lastly, he had been demoted to clean up duty after failing an assignment that same day, due to the previously mentioned occurrences. It wasn't a good day for him. So, surely he wouldn't mind taking a break?

Rhythm disappeared from the rafters, silently reappearing behind the said janitor. She jabbed two of his pressure points with her fingers, causing the man to begin to fall to the ground immobilized, and a quick simultaneous bash to the head rendered him unconscious. He would have hit the ground, but his assailant caught him before he could make the loud noise that would erupt if she were to have refrained from doing so. His shift was almost over, and someone would appear soon; she had a limited amount of time to rid the public of the body and take his place. She effortlessly tossed the scrawny body onto her shoulder before scouring the nearby hallway in an effort to find a room she could dispose of him in. Luckily, she didn't have to do much looking, due to the janitor's closet where the resident janitors kept their supplies being quite near to her current location.

She briefly considered whether someone else had thought of doing the same as her, which would lead to the exciting event of finding literal skeletons in the closet. Unfortunately, no one else had thought of such a bright idea before, and she found the closet to simply consist of brooms, mops, cleaning solutions, and the like.

She removed the marine's white outer coat, which displayed the words 'marine' on the back of it in large letters. After managing to toss the body into the closet and close the door before it came tumbling back out, Rhythm casually walked back over to the pail of water and abandoned mop, which had sprawled itself out upon the floor after the person holding it had let go and allowed it to fall to the ground. It hadn't been necessary for her to prevent that noise, due to the normality of the sound. A body hitting the floor would be much more out of the ordinary, she supposed.

Rhythm slipped on the coat, removed her facial mask and released her long flow of wild green hair, before grabbing the mop and beginning to silently swish the tool back and forth across the dampened floor, as if what just went on had never happened. After doing so for a period of exactly six minutes and forty three seconds, the female intruder heard a pair of loud footsteps casually approaching. Since the body attached to them was obviously not trying to hide their presence, Rhythm assumed that the person must be here because of his job.

Rhythm knew that the man coming to relieve her wasn't going to question why she was there, due to the man she replaced being completely new to the job, and having never met the person who was currently walking towards her.

"Hey there!" a loud and boisterous voice boomed, followed by a loud laugh, "I'm Reggie, resident midnight janitor, here to relieve you from your job!"

Rhythm turned to face the obese man, nodding once towards him as she passed the guy her mop and pail. It was now full of dirty liquids and needed to be replaced with clean water, but Rhythm wasn't sympathetic enough to tell him so. Just as she turned to leave, the replacement called after her, "I was told you were a guy! Guess not!"

Rhythm paused her walking long enough to drone back a reply, "People enjoy making things up." With that said, she resumed walking swiftly down the remainder of the dreary corridor. She purposely went in a direction that did not lead to the jail, just long enough to get out of sight from the man's lingering gaze before turning down yet another hallway that she knew would eventually lead her to her final destination.

As she walked, she passed by many more marines than she had originally anticipated being there. They seemed to have assigned the base a lot tighter of security than usual, and Rhythm knew it was most likely a precautionary measure preformed due to the loss of their building plans.

By the prison door were six marines, each looking tense and ready for whatever came their way. They had obviously overdosed on coffee in an effort to keep themselves awake. Continuing with her marine janitor facade, she approached them without hesitation.

"Evenin,'" she drawled, rubbing at her left eye as she yawned.

"Evening, janitor girl," one of the marines sneered back. His stance was the most casual out of his fellow marines on duty, "What'chya doin' away from your mop, huh?"

"Merely on a break," came the sleepy reply, before continuing, "What do they all think of our newest prisonerrrrr, hmm?"

After a few short moments of silence, the man who had previous spoken to her grunted back, "The same as everyone else, I guess. He's a killer and was a threat to our town—I'm just glad he's locked up now." The other five either nodded in agreeance or made affirmative grunts.

Rhythm let out a long dramatic sigh at the popular opinion. "Rhythm can't help but agree with most o' what he's sayin.' She sure hopes Drake is locked in the deepest darkest cell of the base, hmm." _...to make it more fun for her, of course._

The man nodded in affirmation, "You can be assured, miss, that he is locked away so deep in there that he'll never get out. Don't worry, only Daken here can get in there, no one else."

Rhythm glanced over at the man who had been gestured towards and hence introduced as Daken. Her eyes trailed behind all the men, and towards the an automated machine that had the shape of a handprint upon it, the shape lit up by a soft green glow.

Handprint identification. That meant only the guard Daken's handprint would allow her to get into the prison. Rhythm nodded in satisfaction at her discovery, having achieved her goal in talking to the guards. She had seen the authorization machine on the building plans, but had been so far unable to think of a silent way to get through them. She would have simply taken them all out, but that would have meant that she would have had to try out each and every one of the hands of the guards prints on the machine, and by that time, one of their superiors would have called in for a check up upon seeing so many negative entries on the newly implemented authorization machine. That would have been annoying, and could disrupt her current plan.

The gaze of the man who had been talking to her previously turned to one of slight suspicion upon noticing her eyes travel to the machine that would lead her into the forbidden prison. He scowled, "Don't you think it's about high time you returned to your bucket and mop, trash? You're annoying me."

"I would, but then Rhythm wouldn't be able to break Drake out of prison."

The marines blinked with blank looks upon their faces, letting the words fully sink in. As they slowly did so, their lower jaws began to slowly sink downwards, in separation from their upper jaw. Finally, after her words had completely sunk in, they all cocked their rifles simultaneously and aimed them at the green haired woman, causing Rhythm to offer them a lazy smirk and drawl, "Oh boys, if you _wanted_ to get rough, you just had to say so."

Before the men could utter a single word of interrogation or make a move to call their superiors through the den den mushi that a man on Rhythm's left carried in his front breast pocket, Rhythm quickly and systematically knocked five of the men on the back of the head, rendering them temporarily dazed. She chose to leave in the tongue of the man introduced as Daken, instead choosing to temporarily cut off his air supply with a quick jab to the stomach, the attack sending him clutching at his stomach and gasping for air. She also proceeded to disarm and knock out the other five, before turning to her remaining victim.

"Who...who _are_ you?!" he exclaimed in a hushed voice, eyes wide in horror but laced with a cold and angered undertone.

She squatted down in front of him, and scowled through half-lidded eyes as she ignored his words and muttered, "Is 'e gonna be a good boy 'n comply or is Rhythm gonna have to actually put efforttttt into this?"

The man prepared to shout a warning to all marines around him, but stopped short upon feeling his pinky finger cut off at its base. He went to scream out in pain, but soon found that doing so was not all that easy with Rhythm's hand clamped tightly over his mouth, effectively muffling the sounds.

She growled in an annoyed tone, "Lookie here, buddy. That could have been his tongue. So ya see, the second he goes and makes a sound, she's gonna kill him. So be a dear and put his hand on the handprint authorizationnnnn machine thingie, 'kay?"

She slowly removed her hand from his mouth after the Daken had stopped emitting those annoying muffled screams. Despite his face being scrunched up in a sour manner due to the in immense pain he was in and his eyes impossibly wide at the sight of his own finger laying dormant upon the ground beside him, he nodded and used every bit of will power he had to nod his head.

Daken stood up, and began walking over to the machine. Rhythm stayed close to him in case he attempted to pull anything over her, though she doubted he'd be able to.

Meanwhile, Daken had been plotting in his mind how to get out of the current predicament he was in. He decided that he'd wait until the best possible moment to shout out a warning, and then attempt to fight her. As he went to place his hand on the machine, he figured that now was as good of a time as any. Without warning, Daken suddenly whipped around and brought both his hands up to the sides of his mouth, preparing to shout out to anyone who was within hearing range that there was an intruder in their midst.

Before he could even fully bring his hands up to his mouth, though, Rhythm had brought up her right leg and slammed it against the side of his skull, causing the man to instantly lose consciousness and become a dead weight. Rhythm grumbled to herself about how she had had to catch a total of two people already during this rescue mission, a prominent scowl upon her lips as she lightly set his body down upon the cold floor in front of her.

Using a few strands from her mop that she'd tied together before the other marine had come to relieve her of her shift, she bound and gagged the man so that he wouldn't be able to wake up and cause a ruckus when she preformed the surgery she was about to conduct.

Rhythm revealed a small pocket knife from within her marine uniform—something she had found when putting it on just minutes previous. Without a moment of hesitation, she proceeded to quickly begin sawing off the man's arm in as neat and clean a fashion as one could when attempting to cut off a limb with a dull pocket knife. After twenty-nine seconds of gushing blood and excruciating pain felt by her gagged wide-eyed victim, Rhythm held a detached limb in her hand, her demented green eyes shining proudly.

Her mood dampened when she realized that she had cut off the arm with the missing pinky. That wouldn't do at all, especially since she'd need that pinky finger for an identification machine that required a handprint. Sighing, the young green haired woman picked up the detached pinky in her right hand, while still clutching onto the matching arm under her elbow. She brought both up to the machine and put them together, before placing the now complete hand upon it.

After waiting for it to turn an even brighter colour of green in order to tell her that the system had unlocked the doors upon recognizing the marine's handprint, Rhythm stuck one of the black flip flops she'd been wearing in the door so that it wasn't able to fully close and lock again, before hauling the man and the other five guards who worked with him over to a shadowy part of the dark corridor so that they'd temporarily remain out of the immediate sight of any who passed by.

She took a set of keys from Daken's body and stuck then within her own pocket, hoping they would have a use later on. Unfortunately, she hadn't thought the last part of her plan completely through, especially since the original idea was to simply physically force the man to put his hand upon the print recognizer after knocking him unconscious, no blood involved. She briefly scowled at her impulsive behaviour as she gazed upon the small pool of blood on the floor in front of her.

Rhythm sighed, deciding to ignore the blood and continue on with her mission. With luck, no one would approach the area for another twenty minutes, as required by the designated shift hours. Rhythm usually didn't have all that much luck, though, and found that circumstances often did not go how she planned.

She grasped the circular steering wheel-like handle and then paused. She briefly wondered if perhaps when she opened the door, there would be a huge black hole on the other side, and then she'd be sucked inside of it and never be able to get out and continue sailing the sea as she wished. Though, that also meant that Drake would currently be in the black hole, and it would therefore not be beneficial to continue the mission, since the second she opened that door, a black hole could appear and suck her in with its gravitational forces.

Rhythm paused, briefly beating whether or not she should turn back, before deciding that it was unlikely that there was a black hole on the other side of the door and more probable that there would simply be a prison instead. Sighing, she took her chances and pulled backwards on the partially open door, slipping her flip flop back on and peeking her head inside. _Lovely,_ she thought, _No black hole in sight, hmm._

 _XxxxXxxxX_

 _A/N: Haha oh boy, so maybe Rhythm is just slightly insane. XD And slightly un observant with the less important things, I suppose, with cutting off the wrong arm and all... Heh. Let's see if this comes back to bite her in the butt later on._

 _And hey, drop in a review if you enjoy what you've been reading so far. I really love when I hear from you guys(:_


	9. Episode 9

The first thing she saw was a straight long wall stretching down a seemingly endless length of wide hallway directly to her left, and many small corridors branching off on the right; probably to the different sections of the prison. Rhythm had seen the design in the plans she'd borrowed. 'Borrowed' was indeed the correct word, because she intended on giving the plans back once she had successfully escaped along with Drake.

Having heard the sound of the very large and heavy metal door slowly opening, a guard standing at his post from just inside the jail branch turned his head to see what was going on. Before he was able to do so, however, Rhythm swiftly jumped on to the top of his head, using it as a springboard to launch up into the air and onto the exposed rafters once more. The force of the intruder shooting upwards was enough to cause the man beneath her to slam into the ground he was standing on, successfully rendered unconscious.

Rhythm stealthily scaled the rafters with the grace of a feline as she searched for the area of cells holding Drake. She immediately noticed a pattern; there were two major sections to the cell, probably categorized as the holding cells of the major and minor criminals, respectively. The real issue was figuring out which section was which, as she already knew which of the two Drake was being held in.

After approximately twenty seconds of silently flitting from rafter to rafter in a very quick and agile manner, Rhythm had located her potential crew mate's newest living quarters. Fortunately, there was not a guard in sight, giving her free access to the empty keyhole, placed exactly in the centre of the dark steel bars caging the man in. _How unoriginal_ , she thought to herself, furrowing her brows.

Landing silently upon the cold hard ground in a crouched position, Rhythm watched the unaware man intently for a few moments. Only now was she able to fully observe him in his current situation. Drake was slumped with his back against the wall, knees brought only partially up in a lazy gesture and muscular arms hanging limply at his sides. His eyes were downcast, his neck hung low in despair, with his expression being a mixture of both guilt and defeat. Guilt, for the deaths he'd unknowingly caused, and to his own people at that. Defeat, at the attempt he had made to live a normal life ever since he'd woken up in that hospital bed without any memory of his past actions, now the target of hateful stares and terrified exclaims. From his body language and facial expression, it was obvious that he had completely and utterly given up hope.

Rhythm snapped her fingers, controlling the noise so that it was only just loud enough for Drake to hear. He slowly lifted his head up, but gave no other outward response upon seeing her.

His grey eyes dull, Drake quietly murmured, "What do you want?"

Rhythm walked closer, pressing her body against the bars of his cell, and extending her arms straight upwards to grasp a section of the thin steel cylinders above her head with both hands, "Rhythm wants for Drake to join her crew as her first mate."

A bitter smirk slowly formed upon Drake's face, this being the first variation of his original expression since she had arrived. He scoffed just above his breath, his voice almost silent to even his trained ears, "I'd rather rot in here for the rest of my life than become a filthy pirate."

"She heard his background story, yeah," Rhythm drawled lazily, "Lemme guess; the reason why he's so adamantly against becoming a pirate is 'cause of what they did to his people in the past, hmm?"

"No," he snapped, spiteful tone and bitter expression still in place, "I don't blame those pirates... I blame myself for that."

A long silence followed afterwards, and just as Rhythm was about to question his reasoning once more, Drake resumed speaking. His lifeless eyes met Rhythm's, and in a dejected tone he quietly asked, "Do you really want to know why I don't want to become a pirate?"

Rhythm nodded in confirmation, "Well duh." He returned her nod before continuing, his tone now more sad than bitter, "The real reason I don't wanna become a pirate is because I really can't take any more people in this world hating me."

After a few seconds pause, Rhythm replied with an annoyed scowl, "...does he seriously think that the only thing he'd gain from joinin' Rhythm's so farrrrrr non-existent crew would be a few good fights and a bunch o' enemies who'd hate his guts?"

A nod was the sole response she was given to her question. She huffed, knowing they were running out of time. It wouldn't be long before someone would come and check up on her. Perhaps when they found her there would be an admiral or vice admiral doing a random check up on the base and be given the job to apprehend her; that'd result in her defeat and ultimately her inevitable death. Rolling her eyes at how easily she'd been distracted from the situation at hand, Rhythm refocused herself on the situation.

Remembering what she'd been thinking about before going off on a pessimistic bout of possibilities, Rhythm's half-lidded eyes began to shine fiercely, with a fire in them that Drake had never witnessed before in the time he'd known her. The green haired girl snapped at him in a hushed tone, "Rhythm's gotta story to tell him, but can't do it here 'cause of being... well, ya know... a pirate roamin' freely in a marine jail an' all. Anyways, the mainnnnn point is that he missed one more part about being a pirate."

Her eyes burned into his as she all but growled, "Drake forgot nakama, and for that, he's a stupid lazy dimwit. Nakama are people who care about one another no matter what they've said or done in the past, and always have each others' backs. They're willing to lay their lives down for his own if need be!"

He scoffed, eyes remaining focused on the damp cement floor, "No one is like that, and especially not pirates. You're delusional, hun."

Rhythm glared at him, and though quite annoyed that the exchange was taking so long, she continued talking in hopes of changing his mind. "The double bladed axe you always carry... it was designed after the axe of the famous treasure hunter, correct?"

Startled, Drake looked up to her in surprise, "You know about Captain Tr—"

"If Drake knows of his weapon, and find him to be someone worth emulating, then Rhythm bets he also knows what kinda person Troi was. He viewed his crew as nakama and would've done anything for them."

Drake frowned, "But he was a treasure hunter, not a pir—"

"Doesn't mean there ain't crews that are made up of pirates that aren't like that too," she cut in, rubbing one of her eyes sleepily, "Rhythm's gonna finddddd nakama as she travels, too, n' if he comes with her, he'll get to have nakama like she described. So how about it?"

Upon hearing this revelation, Drake seemed to actually be considering what she said. Seeing this, Rhythm added in a lazy drawl, "When someone has even jus' one other person who cares 'bout them, the rest of the world could hate them and it wouldn't bother them. That's what someone once told Rhythm, at least."

A very long silence ensued. After thinking about the offer for a long while, Drake made his final decision on the matter. Drake marvelled at how this woman, whom he had previously assumed to be some pessimistic goth-like freak, actually had been able to successfully persuade him into becoming a pirate. Drake raised his gaze to meet that of his soon-to-be rescuer's and with a wide grin quipped, "Well then, Captain, how are you gonna get me out of this mess?"

It was at that moment that the loud, shrill sound of the marine base's alarm echoed in powerful resounding waves throughout the entire jail sector.

Upon hearing the shrill ringing of the alarm, a deadly sneer made its way onto Rhythm's face, her eyes narrowing in immense annoyance, and in an effort to vent her frustration, she let out a loud and frustrated growl. Many pairs of approaching footsteps could be heard as the stampede made their way to the jail sector in order to search for and find out what or who the alarm had been set off for.

Rhythm closed her eyes and focused on the sound, paying attention to each set of footsteps, going through each pair in the crowd of marines. She paid attention to the exact way they hit the ground, and by this was able to very roughly determine how skilled they were in combat. She finally came upon a pair that was near the front of the group, the rhythmic pounding they created letting her know that the man weighted around two hundred pounds, and was a skilled fighter. She was also able to tell the size of the shoe that the wearer wore, but that wasn't useful to her right now, as many adults shared the same shoe size. The man who had alerted her attention was no doubt the Lieutenant of the base. By now, the group of approaching marines had already breached into the jail sector, and as a result Rhythm knew it would be unwise to attempt a battle at this moment in time, in this environment.

"Hide these, will ya?" Rhythm scowled as she tossed the set of keys she had stolen off of the guard Daken earlier into Drake's cell. He nodded silently, grasping them with his unbound legs and moving around so that they were securely contained behind him, out of the sight of any guard who decided to walk by.

Meanwhile, Rhythm moved a few cells down so she was positioned in front of the cell of another captured criminal, this one a female, in order to make it seem like she was after this woman, and not Drake. She extended her arms upwards in a gesture of surrender, awaiting the soon arrival of the approaching marines. When they finally rounded the corner and saw her, the Lieutenant gave immediate orders to his men to restrain her. Rhythm did not put up a fight, instead allowing herself to be handcuffed and kicked to her knees.

The Lieutenant scowled at her in sheer malice, "Whatever kind of criminal you are and whatever your intentions were do not matter to me! I simply have arrived to bring you to Justice."

Ignoring his short rant, Rhythm smirked, drawling in amusement, "Pirate."

The marine's scowl became even more pronounced, "A pirate, huh? Haven't seen your bounty poster before, so I'm guessing you're new to the whole thing. Most pirates would have the common sense to not break into a marine base, and the jail sector of all places. What were you trying to do, get this guy out?" the marine jabbed his thumb towards the woman in the cell beside her.

The captive within the cell took on a look of offence before screaming, "I'M A WOMAN!"

He shrugged, completely ignoring the raging woman to his left, "Oh well. Unfortunately for you, you've been caught by Lieutenant Chargic, and that basically means that you have no chance. After all, I _have_ captured and barred every pirate I've come across thus far."

Rhythm tilted her head to the side slightly, examining her nails as she questioned in a bored and disinterested tone, "And the starting point of this timeline is where?"

After taking a few seconds to understand what she was referring to, he rolled his eyes, "Why, when I became a marine, of course. Stupid question."

"Yet it was a question that made him think of an answer fer an extended period of time—5.68 seconds, to be exact."

Lieutenant Chargic scowled, "Can it, pirate. No one cares. You're only prolonging the inevitable. Now," he let out a long sigh full of triumph, "You managed to enter the base and get this far without anyone noticing, so I'd definitely place you among our most dangerous criminals, which happen to be in this row of the jail. I'd hate for you to scheme with the prisoner you attempted—the key word being attempted—to break out, so I'm putting you out of her sight."

With that said, the marine grabbed Rhythm's right arm and begun to drag her along the lengthy row. Most of the cells Rhythm passed were empty, due to the fact that criminals never visited their small island too much, never mind the dangerous ones. The only reason they had some cells filled here was because all the criminals from their make-shift jail which had held the law breakers from the past ten years or so had just been transferred over less than a week ago. Fortunately for the marines, none escaped during the relocation.

Lieutenant Chargic stopped in front of a cell just a few cells past Drake's, kicking Rhythm to the floor and placing his left foot upon her back as he turned to his men, "Men! Throw this trespassing pirate into this cell right here! Don't let her escape, and make sure to lock the cell up tight!"

He smiled as the men scurried to do the work he was too lazy to do himself. They successfully placed the green haired woman into a cell and with a dark coloured key they sealed her up. Their superior nodded in affirmation when they gave him the key to her cell.

Well, more like for all of the cells along the row. After some keen observation on her part, Rhythm's suspicions were confirmed: only one key was needed for each section in the jail sector, depending on the area the cell was located in. In other words, this entire row for the 'most dangerous criminals' all had the same lock and required the exact same key to unlock them. If this was indeed the truth, then the set of keys she had handed Drake should be able to unlock both of their cells, since she had borrowed them from the head guard himself.

As for the handcuffs they both wore, she was unsure if they would be as victorious in removing them. Fortunately, she did not require her arms to fight, though having them locked up would definitely affect her balance. Perhaps they would be able to find Drake's axe if it was nearby and he could use it to remove her bothersome cuffs. With that accomplished, she would be able to pick the lock of his handcuffs with the pocket knife she still carried on her.

As she had been thinking, Drake had been trying to unlock his cell. As soon as the Lieutenant had left, which was after commanding a whole extra unit of guards to continually patrol the jail, Drake had tried removing his handcuffs, but none of the keys on the ring even went in more than half way, signifying their inability to be used for that purpose. He had since stood up and tried his cell lock, which undid itself quite easily and without much noise. The only problem was that when he went to open his prison cell door, it let out the loudest and most unpleasant sound he had heard in his entire life, full of squeaking and creaks.

To him it seemed like far too much work to slowly open the cell door, so he decided to use another method. This involved a complete transformation. He hadn't intended on using this ability, but saw no choice since his new captain was depending on him. He tossed the ring of keys out of his cell in a seemingly idiotic move.

A prisoner a few cells over to his left had heard the creaking and had begun watching him, confused as to why he'd thrown away his only way of getting out. His cell door was unlocked now, and if he'd kept the key then he'd have been able to use it for escaping later when there wasn't such a large amount of security patrolling the area. The prisoner continued watching, but was completely shocked when he saw Drake begin to warp, twist and shrink, until he had become a completely different creature. The animal he had since acquired the features of was a lizard of some sort, and was only a foot long in length. Too astounded to say anything, the man remained silent, his jaw dangling dangerously low.

It immediately took on the colour of the jail floor upon hitting the ground, before scurrying through the cell bars. The handcuffs that had bound his human body fell to the floor, clanking loudly, as they no longer fitted his little transparent wrists. Upon reaching freedom on the other side of his cell, Drake returned to his human form, his animalistic features retracting and replaced with human characteristics, and his entire body greatly increasing in size. He now wore the same appearance as he had on the other side of the cell before transforming.

Rhythm furrowed her thin green brows in confusion. She had felt the air currents bouncing off her cell, and noticed they were far too small for a human like Drake. In fact, those air currents were more suited for that of a mouse or small reptile.

Rhythm smirked; seems as though her first mate was a lot more interesting than she had originally thought.

XxxxXxxxX

A/N: Hey! So seems like Rhythm has herself a new first mate. And he has a devil fruit! Wonder what kind it is... not that the description gave it away or anything already... hah hah...

Submit a review if you want!(:


	10. Episode 10

Picking up the discarded ring of keys, Drake walked over the Rhythm's cell, his feet dragging behind him in a lazy gesture. She looked up upon seeing him, waiting expectantly as he unlocked her cell.

He grinned at her, whispering just loud enough for her to hear him, "You know, I could've just left you here. Be thankful you're my captain, or else I wouldn't have exerted this much effort over something that doesn't involve dessert. Then again, even with dessert, I _still_ might not've used up my energy like that."

Rhythm remained scowling at him for taking so long to unlock her cell, but didn't otherwise say anything as she stood up and walked out, hands still behind her back and confined in dark grey handcuffs, apparently not finding his comment worth a response.

As he walked, Drake shoved his left hand into the pocket of his pants, using his right to attempt to fix his black and blonde hair, which had become quite tousled during his arrest just hours previous.

"It suits him better when in disarray," drawled Rhythm, her expression bored and sleepy.

Drake eyes widened slightly, and after partially regaining his composure he then lowered his eyes to the ground and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, a very slight blush upon his face, "Hah, well thanks, I guess, yeah." When he raised his eyes to properly address her, he was surprised to find that the ring of keys he had been holding and Rhythm had both disappeared. He groaned, mostly to himself, before muttering, "Gee, captain, creepy much?"

Hearing a clinking noise, he turned around, and his eyes widened once again, though this time they must of stretched out their sockets. He couldn't believe that he was currently watching his captain unlock the cells of the other inmates being contained nearby.

"Yo, Captain! Care to explain why you're letting out the other prisoners?" Drake exclaimed, before clamping a hand over his mouth, just remembering that he was supposed to be quiet so that no one heard him.

"Use the brain contained within his skull; that is, if he even has one, hmm," she commented absentmindedly.

"Yes I have a brain, and yes I know where it is!" he snapped, "But I don't see any strategy in this."

Pausing a moment, she sighed in mock exasperation and rolled her eyes. Turning around to face him, she replied, "Well, if he's actually telling the truth about knowin' where his brain is, then the next step is learning how ta put it to use, hmm. But for his sake, Rhythm s'poses she will explain," she paused, ignoring his offended expression, before taking a deep labor-some breath and continuing, "Imagine the confusion that'd be caused if the jail's worst criminals were all ta be on the loose, eh? The distraction would be so grand that we could escape without bein' noticed."

Drake chuckled upon the realization, "Oh, hah, true! Good idea!"

"Well duh, of course it's a good idea; that's why she is tryin' ta do it. Her superior intellect never allows her ta conjure up bad ideas," Rhythm sneered back in her usual untactful manner, continuing to unlock the cages. Upon exiting, the prisoners begin making a ruckus and heading straight for the guards on duty to take them down, in order to make it to the main door and try escape from their prison.

"...Right," her first mate muttered awkwardly, before turning to gaze upon the criminal his captain had just set free, the woman immediately taking off down the corridor and to the entrance of the jail sector.

Rhythm instantly regretted unlocking the last prisoner in the hallway, due to how the convict chose to show her gratitude by passionately shouting directly into her ear, "I'M A WOMAN!" With an irritated scowl, Rhythm drawled slowly after the loud and fleeting escapee, "Hmm, and here Rhythm thought she were a goat. Have some self worth."

"Captain," Drake winced, seeing the glare that Rhythm received from the loud female prisoner when she heard his captain's comment, "You really shouldn't be so blunt and sarcastic sometimes..."

"Why not?"

"'Cause it makes people not like you."

"And people not likin' Rhythm is a problem?"

Drake sighed in exasperation, "Well, isn't it?"

"No."

"Sheesh, just trying to help."

"Help what?"

"Ya know what... never-mind, Captain," Drake sighed, his lips curling up into a slight smile as he shook his head in exasperation.

"Hmm, 'kay."

Rhythm began a brisk walk beside her first mate towards the prison door separating the jail sector from the rest of the base, her green eyes alert for any signs of marines. She removed an apple seemingly out of nowhere, and began chomping down on it. At the end of the corridor, she put an arm in front of Drake to stop him from advancing forwards, before peeking around the corner of the wall to analyze the situation.

Rhythm stopped walking for a moment, seeing no need to rush due to how the marines that had been steadily approaching them were now occupied with all the escapees Rhythm had let out, and were solely concerned about getting them contained once again.

She turned to face Drake, speaking in a low, drowsy voice, "Guess we should go up to the rafters now and travel across them to the main door... that is, unless your ability can help us."

Drake's eyes widened in shock, his multicoloured eyebrows raising to the top of his forehead, "Wha... _what?_ How do you even know about that? You couldn't have _possibly_ seen me from your cell!"

"Rhythm used her brain to figure it out, unlike her first mate who has trouble doing so."

Drake grimaced, "Yo, what's with all of the degrading comments, Captain?"

Rhythm scowled grimly at him, but didn't otherwise comment on that topic, instead choosing to focus on the task at hand. "So, about his ability?"

Drake rolled his eyes while chuckling, "Yeah, my ability will definitely help us to escape better than your jumping along the rafters idea. Mind if I grab your waist?"

"If it helps the operation, Rhythm doesn't mind anythin' that's done ta her."

Drake pulled her towards him, smirking a little as he thought about a more perverted way her statement could be understood, before warning, "Okay, get ready!"

Rhythm nodded, and was amused to find Drake's body shape shift into the form of some species of lizard. This time, though, it was about as big as any human, and still held human-like characteristics. Rhythm assumed this to be one of his hybrid forms. With his scaly sandpaper-textured arm still snaked around her waist, Drake launched into the air towards the top half of a wall.

Upon connecting with it, he immediately began scurrying at a very high speed towards the door of the jail sector, since his lizard hands and feet were sticky and allowed them to do so. He was able to fully blend in with his surroundings, but Rhythm remained visible, and if any of the very busy marines were to have cast their gaze upwards, they would have seen a green haired woman seemingly floating through the air.

By now, alarms and sirens were going off all over the entire marine base, due to the rampaging of all the freed criminals. The marines continued pouring into the sector, oblivious to anything going on above them due to their attention being solely focused upon those on the ground.

The duo quickly made it through the large metal door and outside of the jail sector, now successfully within the main base. Drake took to the roof, now being completely upside-down. He scurried into a dark area to rest for a moment, even though he was not actually tired.

"Why did he stop?" came the annoyed query.

Drake scowled, "Hey now, don't you even think about complaining. Be glad I went this far without stopping! I literally temporarily forsook my laziness for you, and that is a huge deal. A _huge_ deal!"

Rhythm rolled her eyes, before covering her mouth with her hand in order to suffocate her yawn. Her first mate then laughed sheepishly, "Oh, yeah, and I also stopped because I just might not know exactly where the weaponry room is... ha ha."

"Rhythm can show him. She knows where it is, hmm."

Drake groaned after hearing his one very good excuse invalidated by his captain. He'd hoped that he would have been able to get away with resting a bit more while pretending to be thinking about the weaponry room's location. He grumbled to himself, wondering why he had to get stuck with a captain who thought things out so well. He was about to begin whining out loud to her when he saw a group of marines coming their way. Scowling, Drake tightened his grip on Rhythm before setting off once more, "Be my guide, then."

"Eh, sure. Hmm."

With Rhythm's guidance, Drake was able to successfully make it to their destination without being detected. They were able to get into the weaponry room by sneaking through unfinished roofing above the door, even though the main door that led into it from the hallway had been tightly secured. After checking to make sure no one was within the room, he jumped down to the ground, releasing his captain once he had touched the ground. She began to aimlessly wander around with no obvious goal in mind. Drake immediately shifted back to human form and began scouring the room for his most prized possession—his double sided axe. Ever since he lost his memory, it had been the only thing dear to him.

"Found it!" Rhythm heard Drake call out. She nodded once, even though no one could see her, and then turned around to begin walking back to her newest crew member. "One hundred and sixty-three degrees," she droned, noting the exact angle of the said turn she made.

Upon coming back to him, Rhythm found that her first mate was slouched against one of the wall with his eyes closed and his body completely relaxed. She kicked him lightly, causing his eyes to open and his hands to grasp the spot in pain, shouting, "But Captain! I thought it was be really beneficial to us to rest for a bit!"

"Oh, yeah, so that they could literally wait 'til the marines checked out this room and found them. Good plan, couldn't have thought of anything better, hmm.

Drake sighed, giving up on attempting a rest. With his weapon tightly secured upon his back, Drake picked up Rhythm once more and began to exit the base in the same manner as they had been traveling so far. While guiding him, Rhythm deeply pondered whether the scaly feeling she was feeling through her black and white striped shirt felt good or not—or neutral, perhaps.

A few moments later and the pair were now almost out of the base—in fact, the main door was in sight. Though there was a side door leading out of the base, Drake had insisted upon going the main route so as to not have to travel so far, claiming to have a phobia of exercise, and Rhythm had relented even though her original plan was to go through the side exit undetected. Unfortunately for him, there were quite a few marines traveling along the hallways, and they'd had to take a few detours in order to remain undetected that overall ended up being a much longer route than if they had simply went through a side door.

At least, they'd thought no one had seen them.

They were wrong.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a pair of dark-coloured handcuffs came flying towards them. Rhythm just barely saw the attack coming, though she couldn't tell what the object approaching was. She detached herself, and launched off of Drake's back in order to evade. Drake didn't see the attack in time, and was caught off guard when a cuff latched onto one of his hands.

His initial reaction was one of disinterest, thinking that whoever had thrown the attack had missed his other wrist. After another second, though, an immense pain began violently coursing through his body in powerful waves, starting at his wrist and shooting downwards, vibrating throughout his body. It was pain unlike he had ever experienced before—a mixture of a stinging and electrocuting sensation combined.

His hybrid form disappeared, and he reverted back to his human appearance. Due to the shock from the sudden pain, Drake was unable to stop himself from falling a good sixteen feet towards the ground. Rhythm rushed towards him, and would have had enough time to catch him had not a dark figure suddenly appeared in front of her and punched her square in the face.

Rhythm allowed her back to smack into the nearest wall behind her, her body slumping down into a sitting position. With her head bowed, she slowly brought a hand up and wiped the blood from her nose.

The figure slowly walked up to her, his youth-like features revealing themselves, "The name is Lieutenant Chargic, and I'm here to capture you repulsive pirates and stop you from escaping."

Rhythm groaned, slapping a hand to her face as she thought about how annoying this new complication in their plan was. If only she had insisted upon taking the side exit, then they wouldn't be in this mess.

She scowled, lifting her head up to address the lieutenant as she replied in a drowsy voice, "Why? It ain't like neither Drake nor Rhythm have bounties, hmm. What, is he fighting solely from ambitionnnnn?" She tilted her head to the side slightly in an inquisitive manner as she waited for his response.

Lieutenant Chargic sneered, "Not like it matters to you two, since I'm about to bring you both in, but yes, I do fight due to ambition."

"Sounds laaame," she yawned, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth, her eyes slightly glazed over as a sign of disinterest.

"Shut it, pirate!" he growled angrily, "Such insolence! I'm going to beat you both up within an inch our your life!"

Rhythm let out a loud and drawn-out sigh, before drawling, "She is gonna just _love_ crushing all of his ambition, and destroying his spirit, hmm. He will perish by her hand, you mercenary."

"..." Lieutenant Chargic seemed frozen for a few moments before he finally recollected himself, frowning, "Um... I'm a marine."

"But," Rhythm managed feebly with a confused frown, "The name 'Chargic' sounds like it should be a mercenary name."

"Just because a name sounds like it should be something doesn't really mean it actually is..." Lieutenant Chargic trailed off awkwardly, confused by the gloomy woman's assumptions.

"Why not?"

"It just doesn't work that way."

"Is he sure?"

"Yes."

"Oh," Rhythm frowned from her position against the wall she had been thrown against earlier, looking up at him through sleepy half-lidded eyes, "Okay."

"Just okay?"

"Mhm. Now can we fight?" she asked suddenly with a small scowl clouding her features, "This is gettin' awfully boring."

Her statement made Lieutenant Chargic to suddenly remember what he had come after her for. His angry though heavily determined expression returned in full force, and a fire came back into his eyes as he stuck out his arm and pointed at her while yelling, "Time to die, pirate scum!"

He charged forth, but soon realized the woman was no longer in the position she had been just moments previous. Chargic stopped charging, looking around himself in a confused manner as she tried to pinpoint her location.

He hardly saw the attack coming, and the only thing the prevented him from receiving the blunt of the woman's attack was sheer instincts. He flung himself to the left, causing the attack to only graze him, a long but shallow cut appearing on his cheek. Chargic immediately regained composure and jumped back from her in an attempt to create distance, frowning as he did so. He hadn't noticed the woman with wild green hair carrying any sharp object, yet she must have been if she was able to cut his face like that.

Rhythm wasted no time in preforming a rebound attack. She landed upon the ground in a crouching position before launching herself back towards her opponent. The force of her push was enough to catapult her form through mid-air at such a high speed that her appearance became that of a green and black blur.

This time, though, Lieutenant Chargic was ready. He pulled out his sword and braced himself for the oncoming attack. He chose to attempt to block the attack instead of dodging or launching his own attack, since he didn't have enough time to rush forwards and take the offensive, nor could he go on the defensive by dodging, since he viewed doing so in a circumstance such as this to be a cowardly act. Rhythm swung her right leg upwards with impossible speed, before bringing it down towards him.

Chargic braced himself, digging his feet firmly into the ground. He bent his knees slightly and positioned his sword in front of him in a way that would shield him best. In an instant, her leg slammed down upon his sword, resulting in a deadly resounding _clang_. He was able to hold his ground for a full second, his grip unwavering, before the pressure was just too much, and his arms abruptly gave way. The sword was flung out of his hand, and Rhythm's leg continued on its deadly path downwards, smashing into his stomach and effectively knocking the wind out of the man as it drove him into the ground. Chargic gasped in pain at the power of the attack as he struggled to regain his breath.

Rhythm backed up, allowing the man time to recollect himself as she ran towards Drake, who was wreathing in pain from the handcuffs' cold electric pulses that seemed to rattle his entire body. Before she could get very far, though, a large man appeared in front of Drake, blocking her pathway to him. She tilted her head to the side, observing him through her droopy half-lidded eyes. She noticed his short dark red beard and the matching handlebar moustache he sported.

"Woah," she murmured, using all of her willpower to not reach out and feel the man's moustache for herself, "Now that's hella cool."

A/N: Episode ten is up! I really like Kai's character haha. He's pree chill. Hope you guys all like Drake! You'll get to see a lot more of him in the coming chapters. I actually have this story written out to like chapter 22 I think, but I have bad wifi and it takes forever to put these up haha. But I'll try get better from now on.


	11. Episode 11

The man looked to her in curiosity, "I was about to say that I could not let you try and free this man, but it seems as though your attention has temporarily shifted to my... moustache?"

"Mhm! It's absolutely beautiful!" she exclaimed in delight, tilting her head from left to right and jumping from side to side, up and down, viewing the moustache from all angles.

Drake watched his captain in immense confusion; he'd never seen her exert so much energy before. She was usually so grumpy and un-energetic, which is which it was weird for him to see her face completely light up upon seeing the man's moustache. It wasn't like handlebar moustaches were all that rare or anything, though he had to admit that this one was quite impressive in how precisely it had been shaped and sculpted.

Finally, Rhythm slumped down into a sitting position in front of the man. She whined, "Boo, no fair. Rhythm wants a moustache like that. Oi, wanna join her pirate crew?"

The large marines laughed heartily, before shaking his head and wiping away a stray tear that had managed to escape. He held back his amusement and answered her, saying, "Sorry pretty lady, but I'm afraid I can't do that. I am a Lieutenant Commander of the marines, and the highest ranking officer of this base."

By now, Lieutenant Chargic had finally managed to stand up and begin walking over, his steps slow and cautious. He greeted his superior with a respectful salute, "Lieutenant Commander Kai, sir! Permission to apprehend this pirate by myself and without any outside interference, sir!"

Lieutenant Commander Kai chuckled, "Heh, and by outside interference you mean me, eh?"

Chargic's gaze immediately lowered, and he nervously played with his fingers, "No disrespect intended, sir!"

"Alright, alright," Kai laughed, beginning to walk away, "Permission granted. But if this becomes too much for you, then I will be forced to step in. Agreed?"

"Agreed. Although, that won't be necessary," replied the confident lieutenant, his eyes never leaving his superior officer until the red haired man had seated himself farther down the hallway quite a ways from where their fight was about to take place, but not so far away that he couldn't see what was going on.

"Hmm."

Taking a stance a good distance away from his green haired opponent, Chargic readied himself, sword in hand. Rhythm watched him with her usual sleepy expression, rubbing her tired eyes as she waited for him to resume their fight.

Once he deemed himself ready, Lieutenant Chargic charged forward, sword slightly to the right so that he was prepared to swing it at any given time. Rhythm flew forwards as well, at a speed much faster than his own, her legs braced and just as ready to attack as he was with his sword.

Upon reaching her, Chargic swung his sword forwards in a wide arc, slicing at the leg of his attacker with the sharp side. Expecting to completely sever the limb from the rest of her body, he was astonished to find that Rhythm's leg was not even slightly damaged by his sword, and was struggling for control just the same as he. His eyes widened as he realized just how honed and well-trained she was in her way of fighting; if her leg had not been damaged from his attack, then that could only mean that her leg was just as strong as his sword, which was made of steel, if not stronger.

Lieutenant Chargic gritted his teeth, using all his might to hold against his opponent. His arms began to tire, his sword began to shake violently. Unwilling to let her push him back, he suddenly retreated, jumping back a few yards in order to set between them a good distance. Chargic was annoyed to find that the woman never showed any sign of what she was feeling within her facial expression—it was consistently drowsy and gloomy, her eyes droopy and dull. This fact irked him to no end.

Once again, it was him who was the first to charge, yelling out as he did so, **_"Subjection!"_** With his sword still in its sheath, Chargic swung a perfect circle, bringing out his weapon in mid spin. He used the momentum of the spin to add to the power of his attack as he swung it from the side at Rhythm. The green haired woman never moved, simply bringing up her right leg to counter. Sword connected with leg, but while the lieutenant struggled, Rhythm easily held her ground with apparent disinterest.

Her attention briefly turned towards her new first mate, who was quite a few yards away and still in immense pain. Her sharp eyes caught how his face was twisted up, his body twitching violently as the pain shot through his wrists, shooting down his into every inch of his body like multiple spears over and over again. She realized that the pain was a result of the handcuffs, which were most likely made from a very high grade of seastone. Unable to do anything about Drake at this point in time, she turned her attention back to the man attempting to fight her.

After briefly watching her opponent struggle beneath her, Rhythm sighed and shook her head, drawling in a drowsy voice, "Pathetic."

With her right leg still holding against Lieutenant Chargic's sword, dragging it along with her, she performed a mid-air flip above him which allowed for her to attack his open form with her remaining leg. She connected with his lower back, knocking the wind out of him as he flew forwards. Rhythm jumped back a couple feet to avoid the incoming sword he had swung back right before flying forwards, before watching him clutch his injured back with one hand and gasp for breath. He held onto his sword limply with his other hand, refusing to let it go.

Never one to waste an opportunity, Rhythm flew towards him, aiming for his skull. He saw her coming out of the corner of his eye and in a desperate attempt to not be killed, he rolled to the side, causing her attack to simply slam into the cement flooring beside his head. His eyes widened in horror, the vibrating he felt through the floor making him realize just how close he had come to death.

Chargic attempted to scurry away quickly, but was unable to do so due to yet another powerful attack launched by his opponent. Once again he was able to just barely dodge, though this time it resulted in him having to release his sword, which was now out of his reach, in order to not get crushed. Rhythm's leg slammed down onto the ground with tremendous force, causing the flooring to shatter into what seemed like a million shards, the cement shards shooting into all directions. Rhythm jumped back to dodge them all, but Chargic was unable to do the same, and many of the small yet jagged pieces of cement cut into his back, which he had angled towards the oncoming barrage of sharp objects. His face scrunched up in pain, but he temporarily ignored the feeling in order to stand up and not continue to be in such a vulnerable position.

Relentlessly, she immediately launched herself like a raging pinwheel towards him, and this time the lieutenant was unable to dodge. He crossed his arms in front of his person and braced himself.

 _ **"Apple Dicer!"**_ Rhythm drawled as her first leg collided into his gut, immediately followed by her other leg, then by her original, over and over again in a speedy pinwheel motion. When she retreated, Lieutenant Chargic's eyes glazed over and he gasped, coughing out a large amount of blood onto the ground. He struggled to remain standing, but found that the pain was just too blinding to do so. He knew that if he were to try, it would overwhelm him and he would fall unconscious, so he allowed his legs to give way and let his body fall upon the ground, landing on his side in an unnaturally twisted position. From the immense pain coursing through his body, the lieutenant knew that he was in bad condition. He figured that he was bleeding internally, and quite possibly had shattered all of his ribs. He watched with a sad and defeated smile as his opponent went for the final attack, closing his eyes in preparation for his soon death.

Lieutenant Commander Kai frowned, unwilling to let his subject to suffer the same fate as many marines already had, all by the hands of pirates. Jumping into action, he propelled himself towards the duo, with speed easily countering that of the offending pirate's.

He was about to intercept, when Rhythm suddenly stopped just short of Lieutenant Chargic's head and proceeded no further. Instead, she turned to the Lieutenant Commander, eyes narrowing. Pivoting, she redirected her attack to assault the superior officer, though she knew it wouldn't be enough to hit someone like him. She was right; the man dodged, travelling underneath her and picking up his downed officer instead of countering. She took note of the fact that the man was significantly faster than any opponent she'd faced so far.

Rhythm took this opportunity to flit over to Drake, who was still shaking upon the ground, writhing in pain. She took out the keychain from her pocket and was about to unlock the cuffs upon her first mate's wrist when she felt a presence fast approaching her. It was too late; she didn't have enough time to remove Drake's cuffs. Diving to the side, Rhythm was just barely able to evade the Lieutenant Commander's attack. She immediately flung herself onto all four limbs in a crouching position upon making contact with the cold ground, sharp eyes carefully scanning each move the marine made.

She watched as he picked up Drake's shaking body and tossed him over to where Lieutenant Chargic was laying. Her first mate landed a couple feet away, causing the previously mentioned marine to scream, comically scooting away as best he could with all the damage he had sustained, a look of horror upon his face as Drake continued rolling towards him. Once the other man had stopped moving, the lieutenant then proceeded to angrily yell at his superior, telling him that he had to be more careful when he threw pirates, exclaiming that he could have died, before adding a respectful 'sir' to the end of his rant.

Lieutenant Commander Kai dismissed the downed man with a wave of his hand, instead turning his attention to the pirate in front of him. He tilted his head to the side, looking the woman over from head to toe, "Although I can't place why, you look familiar."

Rhythm met his cruel stare and droned back, "She has not met you before, hmm."

The marine smirked, "Oh, I _know_ that, kiddo. I have photographic memory, so I'd remember you if I did. Hence is the reason why I think you must look similar in appearance to someone I've seen. Perhaps a relative?"

The pirate nodded, "Sì, that could easilyyyyy be it."

"So, who is it that you're related to that triggers my memory like so?" he asked curiously, though he didn't actually expect an honest reply.

Rhythm scowled at him in annoyance, "Does it matter?"

Lieutenant Commander Kai laughed at her, shaking his head, "No, I suppose not, eh? Ha ha!"

Sighing tiredly, Rhythm queried, "May the two of them fight now? Rhythm cares about this conversation as much as she cares about that ant carrying a leaf 3.8 times its size, approximately thirty feet northeast of here," Rhythm replied, still scowling.

Kai glanced in the direction she had pointed out and took a few steps forward. Upon spotting the ant she had referred to, he smirked, "You have sharp eyes, little lady. I'll give you that. Although, I'm assuming you don't care at all about that ant, and want to begin this fight and your inevitable loss."

She nodded, bringing up her hand to cover the yawn that threatened to escape.

He continued, "Well then, I'll strike you a deal. If you manage to defeat me, you get back Drake. If you lose, which you inevitably will, I'll kill him. Does that sound fair to you, sweetheart?"

Rhythm tilted her head the the side, replying in a drowsy voice, "Sì, it does, though Kai was stating the obviousssss. Kai is his name, right?"

The man in question rolled his eyes before letting out a loud laugh, "Correct, Kai's my name."

She sighed, "Alright. If it means that they will fight, Rhythm agrees to his obvious and redundant terms."

"Creepy much," Kai muttered under his breath, before readying himself and getting into a fighting stance. His voice loud and clear, he exclaimed, "Come at me then, pirate! Let's see what you can do against a real marine!"

From his position away from the battle, Lieutenant Chargic screeched, " _Hey!_ Is that an insult? Sir!"

His question only made his superior officer laugh even more, much to his immense displeasure.

Rhythm nodded once, before launching towards him from her animalistic crouched position, which she had maintained throughout their entire conversation. She raised a leg in an effort to smash it against his skull, causing the marine to smile. He grabbed her leg, stopping it in his tracks. To his dismay, the action also caused his thumb and three fingers to give way and twist quite suddenly into unnatural angles. He cringed slightly, surprised at her strength which he had clearly underestimated, but didn't show any signs of letting go. Instead, he grabbed the limb and lifted her entire body into mid air, beginning to spin around in a rapid circle.

The act was intended to disorient Rhythm, but it failed to do so, her past training proving its usefulness. She was able to deduce everything about her situation each millisecond she was in it, which allowed her to place a hard and unexpected kick upon the area just below Lieutenant Commander's left shoulder, which he didn't expect. He let go of her as a reaction to the sudden blow, which knocked the air out of him. Rhythm was sent flying into the opposite wall, her face—soon followed by the rest of her body—colliding into the brick wall and leaving a deep imprint, before her limp body slowly slumped down to the ground beneath her.

As she fell, Rhythm recollected herself and just barely managed to get into a crouching position before she came into contact with the ground. Blood dripped down from the left side of her mouth, and bruises began to form on multiple areas of the front of her body. Kai, although his hand had been rendered useless, charged forward with just as much or more speed than he did previously. He extended his right arm, fingers extended with their sides pressed firmly into each other, creating a flat surface as he attempted to stab her with it.

Rhythm was just barely able to dodge out of the way, causing Kai to cushion into the wall in a crouching position as his opponent had done earlier and utilize the force from his unused attack into a rebounding one. She was unable to dodge this one, fleeting to the right while knowing that she would be hit. His hand connected with Rhythm's stomach in a slicing motion, causing her eyes to widen at the sudden pain. She fell to her knees, clutching her stomach with both hands as she coughed out blood.

She was unable to get out of the way fast enough to evade Kai's next barrage of attacks. He was fast... so fast.

Kai assaulted the spiky-haired woman with attack after attack, the almost non-existent time between each attack rendering her unable to get out of his way. After beating her to a bloody pulp, Kai backed away to admire his handy work. He smirked at the sight in front of him. Rhythm's long lime green hair which normally was quite voluminous and spiked messily in all directions lay limp upon the ground, coated in blood from the pile that had already begun forming beneath her. Her face was swollen and full of bruises, one eye and the area around it so enlarged that she was unable to open it.

XxxXxxX


	12. Episode 12

"Shut up," Drake sneered at Lieutenant Chargic, who had been laughing harder and louder than a hyena ever since his captain had begun her fight. The constant sensation of pain pulsing through him in near-electrocuting waves had caused beads of sweat to form upon his forehead, and twist his expression from its usual dull look into one which Chargic found extremely amusing.

"B-but..your face looks so... so constipated that I... can't help it!" Chargic howled, and would have continued laughing if it wasn't for the sudden mood change of the pirate next to him, from annoyance to shock. The lieutenant looked over to the captive, whose eyes had widened to the size of saucers. He followed his gaze to the fight going on, and immediately saw what had gotten the man so distraught. His female captain had fallen, and Lieutenant Commander Kai had beat her to a pulp. Chargic watched, almost entranced, at how efficient his superior officer was. He aimed to one day be that skilled of a fighter, and if possible, even better.

After Kai had finally stopped the assault, Drake hissed, "I'd go over there and kick that marine's butt for doing that to her if I didn't have these bloody handcuffs on."

"Didn't you just meet her, though?" the marine beside him asked mockingly.

"Your point?" came the casual yet slightly stiff reply.

Chargic smirked, "That it sucks to be you."

Despite the tremendous pain he was feeling all over his body, Drake's eyes remained focused on the fight at hand, never once turning away. His fists clenched and unclenched repeatedly.

"So much for believing in her, hmm?" the man beside him laughed to himself. Drake snarled back in response, smashing his cuffs onto the Lieutenant's face. Chargic howled, this time in pain and not from laughter. He scooted back some, looking like a worm, as he tried not to jarr the injured parts of his body.

"Just you watch; she won't go down that easily."

"That's what they all say."

As the seconds ticked painfully by, Drake seriously began to think that his captain was down for the count. His hope truly was blind, seeing as how he didn't actually know anything about his captain or her abilities, and was going simply by intuition. He watched Kai slowly begin to walk over to the mess of a woman, but stop short, his face filled with shock. Drake frowned in confusion, wondering what could have surprised the marine like that. He looked to Rhythm, who had Kai's attention upon her, and immediately saw why. A wide smirk appeared on his face as he watched his captain slowly begin to stand up.

Though Drake struggled to deal with the pain the handcuffs were causing his body, he decided that he'd better not complain. His captain most likely felt a lot worse than he did, if she felt the same way she looked, and yet she showed no signs of backing down. He made a quick resolve to not feel sorry for himself, before craning his head to look at the marine beside him, throwing him a small smirk, "Told ya my captain was something else. I wouldn't follow anyone less than the best."

XxxxX

 **[a few seconds ago - Rhythm's perspective]**

Rhythm felt as though her entire body was one large heap of broken bones all bagged together by skin. She closed her eyes for a moment to assess the damage. One dislocated left shoulder. One broken right arm. All bones from her right elbow down to her fingers had been shattered. At least two broken ribs. One large gouge into her stomach. Those were the main injuries, at least.

 _'Just like all those years ago,'_ Rhythm thought to herself as she began to stand up, with little difficulty.

Lieutenant Commander Kai's eyebrows lifted so high that Rhythm was sure they would come off of his forehead. She sighed in relief, thankful that his moustache wasn't trying to escape as well, as that would surely be a tragedy. _How could she still be standing after taking that much damage? Her body was broken; that should have been impossible._

After opening and closing his mouth for a few moments without anything coming out, Kai finally managed to stutter, "H-how... how are you still standing? Don't you feel pain?"

Rhythm tilted her head to the side, "Rhythm is used to pain, hmm. This is nothing compared to what she has been put through."

Kai frowned, then readied himself once more, "Alright, then. I suppose I'll just have to put you through the worst pain you've felt yet!"

Rhythm smirked slightly, her usual scowl disappearing for a moment as she replied with determination, "Sorry mister, but there's only one person in the world tha' can make Rhythm feel what ya just described. Prepare to perish, rodent."

"Just try me, pirate," he sneered, flying towards her.

Rhythm sprang forward with renewed vigour, running towards the man with her arms trailing uselessly behind her. She ignored the pain, and met him head on with her own attack. She jumped into the air slightly and angled her body in such a way that her legs came down upon the marine in a cross pattern, **"Bloodied Cross!"** Kai parried the powerful attack by swinging his arms up and forming a triangle with his thumbs and pointer fingers.

The two fighters stood there for a few seconds, each refusing to back down. Kai marvelled at the power of her strike, despite being so injured. Then again, he had not attacked her legs like he should have done, which would have neutralized her fighting style. He cursed at himself, but soon refocused on the fight at hand, deciding that he would win either way. Before long, though, Rhythm began to overpower him, and he was pushed backwards, until he finally had to jump back to avoid her onslaught. He leg slammed into the ground, causing the floor to crack yet again.

Lieutenant Commander Kai frowned at this; he didn't want the base to become any more damaged than it already was. He made a _'T'_ motion with his hands, causing Rhythm to pause her rebound attack. She rolled her eyes at herself, annoyed at having listened to her opponent, and possibly falling into a trap. Perhaps the _'T'_ didn't stand for trap, though. Perhaps it stood for terrible, which could hint to a mass amount of people being scared, which could mean that the world was in danger, and perhaps that danger was a gigantic mutant koala rampaging through the world and destroying everything in sight, and maybe that giant koala was upon them now and about to attack her from behind, and she was about to get eaten before she could even attempt to win their fight.

"Perhaps we should move outside, so that the floor of the base will not become any more destroyed," Kai suggested, silencing Rhythm's crazy musings.

"Okayyyyy," she drawled, walking outside and leaving her back completely exposed to the marine behind her. Her guard was up, however, and she was prepared for any sort of attack Kai might attempt to unleash upon her while he thought she was unprepared. Fortunately for her, however, he didn't attempt any sort of dirty move.

Rhythm jumped backwards a few times in order to put space between them, so she could think about her next course of action. She had listened carefully, and made sure that Kai hadn't ordered any marines to put Drake back into the cell while she was walking out. In fact, not a single marine had come by during their entire confrontation, and as a result she assumed that either Kai had commanded them to all vacate the area before he had arrived on her and Lieutenant Chargic's fight, or they were simply too busy trying to catch the escapee prisoners that she had set loose. Drake would be safe for now, but if anyone tried pulling any stunts... they'd genuinely regret it once she was done with them.

Once they were both outside and a little ways away from the building, Lieutenant Commander Kai nodded at her, as a sign that they could continue where they'd left off.

A family with two small kids was walking on the road passing the marine base, and gave the two opponents a questioning look, almost scared, upon seeing their strongest marine officer fighting someone without a marine outfit on, and Rhythm's terribly injured physical state wasn't helping them come up with many positive theories as to what was going on, either. In order to satiate their fear, the Lieutenant Commanded Kai yelled loudly so they could hear him, assuring them that this was only a training exercise, and they need not worry. The four citizens smiled in relief upon hearing this, and the two children waved excitedly at him before they carried on with their walk.

Lieutenant Commanded Kai turned to face Rhythm once more, just in time to step aside and dodge her attack. He glared at her, "That was a dirty move and you know it, miss!"

Rhythm scowled back, "It ain't like Rhythm attacked from behind or anything, so suck it up, hmm. 'e's just mad 'cause he almost was not able to dodge that."

"As if!" he exclaimed heatedly, springing towards her, "Die, pirate!"

Rhythm ducked under his fist, her long hair blowing back due to how narrowly she had managed to evade his attack. She spun around and swung her leg directly into the middle of his back, calling out, **"Dead Man's Bow!"**

Kai had just barely managed to regain his balance and step forwards, lessening the power of her attack slightly, but it was still enough to cause him to bend over in pain. Quickly recovering, he turned around and kicked down towards her, only to be met by her own leg swinging up and countering his attack. Unfortunately for her, she had been unable to gain much momentum while swinging, and the lieutenant commander's leg swung downwards, straight into her already dislocated left shoulder. Rhythm let out a brief exclaim of pain, before gritting her teeth so as to not allow the pain to show on her face.

She launched a barrage of kicks at the man, causing her mind to cloud and temporarily forget her pain. Kai easily flitted back and forth while being pushed backwards, just barely evading every single attack she threw at him, an easygoing smirk on his face as he did so. Rhythm finally stopped to regain her breath, huffing in frustration at not being able to land a clean hit on him.

Taking advantage of her exhaustion, Kai launched forward with a series of his own attacks, jabbing and slicing at her with his hands. She was forced back in order to not get hit, unable to recover her energy, which caused her movements to become sluggish. Winding up for the final blow, Kai swung his arm towards her in a circular motion, fingers pressed together and hand flat like a plate. Though she had been able to dodge most of his attacks while being pushed back so far, her exhaustion prevented her from moving to avoid his next attack. His hand pierced into her lower stomach, straight through the skin.

Kai removed his hand, a grim look upon his face as his opponent fell to the bloodied grass beneath her. She growled out loudly through her teeth in an effort to lessen the feeling of the pain some. Blood flowed freely from the gaping wound in her stomach, and Rhythm realized that the wound was enough for her to die from blood loss if she kept fighting much longer.

She attempted to reach up and rip a section of her shirt off in order to cover the wound, but Kai didn't allow her that privilege. He stomped his foot down hard upon her shattered wrist, causing her to cry out in pain again. He twisted his foot down upon it, digging the pointed part of his boot into the limb. Rhythm grimaced at the surge of pain that spread into every single part of her body. She glanced back towards the doorway of the marine base, knowing Drake was inside and could probably see her right now. If she didn't find a way out of this predicament, he would go back in jail, and there'd be no hope for him at life.

With this in mind, a renewed sense of anger surged through her entire person, and despite her forearm still being dug into by the foot of the lieutenant commander, a burst of energy allowed Rhythm to swing her left leg around behind him, at such a speed that his legs were pulled out from under him, and Kai tripped, tumbling ungracefully upon the grassy ground beneath him.

Without missing a beat, Rhythm jumped up and began assailing him with a variety of attacks from behind. She slammed her leg down upon his right shoulder, which caused him to lie completely defenceless on his stomach, face buried into the ground. After that, she smashed his back, then his legs, and his shoulders. Every single time he went to get up, she attacked whatever part of his body had begun moving, rendering him useless.

Once she had deemed him down for the count, she stepped away, stumbling a little, as the blood loss from her large stomach wound was beginning to make her quite dizzy and light-headed.

Kai groaned quietly as he flipped himself onto his back. Using every ounce of strength he had left, he stood up and flew over to Rhythm in an attempt to attack her from behind. Hearing the attack from a mile away, she simply waited until he was close enough, and then pivoted ninety degrees and kicked out at him sideways, gutting him straight in the stomach, which caused Lieutenant Commander Kai to crumple down to the ground, breathing raggedly, his body damaged so greatly that even his will to fight was not enough to allow him to get up and continue the battle.

He had lost and the pirate had won, fair in square.

After making sure that this time the Lieutenant Commander would not get up again, Rhythm weakly made her way over to Drake. He looked up at her, giving her a strained smile despite his pain. Though her right arm was useless, she could still work with her left arm; though her left shoulder was dislocated, she would still be somewhat able to use the rest of the arm attached to it. It would hurt, but rescuing her first mate was worth it. Once they were back aboard their boat, they could leave the island for good and have the opportunity to rest.


	13. Episode 13

Drake had seen her around before; she was the one who everyone in Sharuu City loved, as it was said that she had shot down the pirate captain who had attacked their town years ago. He couldn't remember any of that for himself, though, due to his amnesia.

"W-wait!" she called out, huffing and puffing when she reached them. She leaned over, grasping her knees as she tried to catch her breath. Finally, she stood up, meeting the curious faces of both Rhythm and Drake.

"Well, well, hmm," Rhythm drawled to herself, in a quiet voice that only she could hear, "The girl found some balls after all."

Seeing that his captain wasn't going to say anything to the girl, Drake asked her himself, "What's up?"

"I'm Kiyoshi!" she yelled out, doing her best to be brave, "And we are best friends!"

Drake raised an eyebrow, "Oh? Friends don't talk to each other for three years? As far as I remember, I don't know you. Sorry, Sista."

Her gaze lowered, and she looked to the sandy beach at her feet in shame, "Well, it's b-because I thought you h-hated me!" she whimpered, "That's why I would always avoid you."

"I don't hate you, although I still can't remember who you are."

"My d-dad owns Red Shull, and he always tried sheltering me off f-from the rest of the cityfolk, s-saying I was too good for them. Once d-day, when I was eight, I r-r-ran away from home, sick of being b-barricaded up there. I ran into a wild w-wolf, and had my back up against a tree... I was t-trapped. Then, out of nowhere, a boy with blonde and black h-hair appeared and scared the wolf away with his g-giant double sided axe!"

Drake's eyes narrowed, hazy memories that he thought he'd never remember beginning to fill his mind as she continued to speak.

"You saved me!" she sobbed, "And after that day, we c-continued to meet in the woods! You'd make fun of me for being weak, and I'd get mad at you for being w-way stronger than me. But still, you were my best f-friend!"

Rhythm rolled her eyes at how emotional the girl was being, but Drake didn't seem to mind, entranced with her tale.

"On my eleventh b-birthday, you took me to a river in the f-forest and we went hiking! I saw s-so many plants and animals that I never knew existed! Y-you knew the names of every sp-species, and took the time to explain the f-f-function of each and every one t-to me," she whispered, tears continuing to stream down her face.

Memories of a small red headed girl began to flood Drake's mind, and in a flash, they all came at him at once. He groaned, grasping his head with both of his hands as a massive headache began to form.

Biting her lip, Kiyoshi continued, "We had the best of times together! M-my father never knew, of c-course. You'd show me the world in a way I'd n-never have been able to see it if I'd h-have just stayed with my d-dad. You were the one who con-convinced me to go back to my dad's h-house, but told me that we could continue meeting in s-s-secret. So, that's what we did, until one d-day three years ago when p-pirates attacked Sharuu Port, rampaging through th-the streets."

Drake groaned louder, squeezing his head even more tightly than before. Seeing that she had stopped speaking, he painfully opened one eye and looked at her. He saw the familiar worry on her pretty little face, something that he'd seen so many times before after he'd come back all exhausted and injured from training. She had bandaged his wounds, snuck him a hearty meal from her dad's restaurant, and helped him in any way she could. She'd always been there for him.

"Go on, please."

Swallowing loudly, she carried on recounting the past, "We were in the f-forest at the time. You had just beaten m-me in a fight, without even using your axe. A stray p-pirate tried attacking us, but y-you saved me from him. Realizing that the t-town was in danger, you told me to wait by that t-tree while you went into town to try and h-help in any way you c-could."

He remembered everything, now. Kiyoshi, the pirate attack... what he'd done to the people in his town. Realization flooded his wide open eyes as he suddenly realized why everyone hated him so much. He'd slaughtered many of the cityfolk, and his meek best friend was the only one who had been able to stop him. They didn't report him to the marines straight away because his parents had been doctors as well marines, and they felt they'd be disrespecting their memory if they sent their son away to Impel Down.

"I tried to—" Kiyoshi tried talking, her eyes focused on the ground, but stopped short when she felt the familiar muscled arms of her best friend surround her frail body, embracing her tightly. Her eyes widened, and she briefly stiffened at the sudden contact, before melting into him and returning the gesture, sobbing lightly.

"I wanted to t-alk to you, I really did!" she cried, "But I thought you'd h-hate me, since everyone looked to m-me as the h-hero, instead of you, who was the one who r-really saved them all."

"I also killed them," he murmured into her deep red hair.

"I don't care about th-that," she whispered back, "I just... care about you. I'm s-so sorry for everything!"

Drake released her pulling apart just enough so that they could look each other in the eyes, their faces inches apart. He smiled widely at her, before whispering, "I forgive you."

Her expression became one of shock, and she was speechless for more than a few seconds. Finally, she beamed at him in return and exclaimed, "You always w-wanted to explore the seas, and this is y-your chance, is-isn't it? So do your best!"

He nodded at her, determination in his eyes, and embraced her tightly one last time before turning around and walking back over to where Rhythm and the boat were waiting for him. Kiyoshi wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, smiling through the tears. Drake grinned back in response, waving wildly as Rhythm pulled up the anchor and pushed the small ship off the docks, letting the waves carry it farther into the sea.

Kiyoshi glanced behind her after hearing a stampede of footsteps. Her eyes widened when she realized marines were quickly approaching the docks, and immediately gestured for the two pirates to hurry. She then scurried away herself into the forest, where she had shared all of her most fond memories.

Upon seeing what the redhead was so worried about, Rhythm immediately unfurled the ship's two sails and let the wind carry them even faster away from Sharuu Port.

Before long, the small island was out of sight.

Rhythm turned to Drake, rubbing her sleepy eyes, "So, why didn't ya kiss her, hmm?"

Drake's eyes widened, and he immediately spit out the water he had been drinking, spraying the liquid everywhere. He coughed loudly, before clearing his throat and recomposing himself, "Why would I do that, huh? Too much effort."

"'Cause it's obvious you both like each otherrrrr," she drawled slowly, laying down upon the deck of the ship and placing her apple-shaped bag over her head in order to prevent the sunlight from reaching her ghostly pale face.

Drake scowled at her, "Mind your own business!"

"Boo."

Rhythm smirked widely at him, even though he couldn't see it, before exhaustion took over and she fell fast asleep.

XxxxX

 **[12 hours later]**

Rhythm stood at the helm of her small ship, arms at her sides and eyes closed. Her long spiky green hair blew wildly behind her, like the dancing flames of a forest fire. Her expression actually appeared peaceful instead of grumpy for the first time since Drake had met her.

His back was against the railing that surrounded the ship's deck, head tilted back and eyes closed. Drake sighed, deciding that he should probably get to know his captain some more. It would involve the troublesome task of actually opening his eyes and getting off his behind into a standing position, but he knew he should probably do it anyways. After completing the gruesome task, Drake walked at a painfully slow speed towards his serene captain.

"Cap'n?" he called out, uncertainty in his voice.

A few long moments later the reply came, "Hmm?"

"Could you tell me about yerself?" he grimaced as she opened her eyes and tilted her head to the side in what appeared to be curiosity, "I'll answer any questions you want to know about me, too, if you want."

Rhythm scowled at having been interrupted, but despite how she acted, she honestly didn't mind getting to know her first mate a bit better. She walked towards him until she was within a few feet, before plopping down onto the wooden floor beneath her quite loudly.

Rhythm walked towards him, expression blank, before plopping down onto the floor before him in a somewhat ungraceful manner. She looked up to him, scowl still in place, before drawling, "What does Drake want to know about Rhythm?"

Drake grinned, squatting down to her level and making himself comfortable, as he was quite happy to sit instead of stand, "Just about anything, really. Tell me about yerself."

Rhythm frowned, "She doesn't know wha' to reply."

Drake laughed, "Hmm, well... How about your favourite colour?"

"Rhythm does not have a favourite colour. Such preferences she finds useless and a waste of time."

Ignoring the urge to smack himself on the forehead, he tried again, "Alrighty then, what about your favourite pastime?"

"Cutting things and sitting by herself in the dark," she replied dully.

Drake pressed further, "Um, cutting things? Like what?"

"Cardboard, paper... people."

"Ah-ah, I see," he chuckled nervously at the crazy gleam in her eyes, hurriedly changing the subject, "Do you have any family?"

Rhythm nodded in response, "She does, hmm."

"Sisters, brothers, parents?"

"Sisters."

Drake rolled his eyes at her clipped replies, "Fine then. Why did you come to my island?"

"Rhythm came to his island from Ringo Isle because it was on her way to the Grand Line."

He stopped short, frowning deeply, "There was not a quicker way? Ringo Isle isn't far from Reverse Mountain... and if you were heading my way, then aren't you kind of going in the opposite direction?"

Rhythm scowled, "She needs to spend time gatherin' a strong crew b'fore entering, or else they'll be annihilateddddd."

"Such brutal honesty," Drake muttered, turning his gaze to the wooden floor and absentmindedly fiddling with one of the many chain bracelets covering his left arm.

Nothing was said for over a minute, and Drake assumed that his captain had gone back to closing her eyes, which she had, and hence that the conversation was over. This is why he was surprised when she replied after so long, and even more so when she inquired about him, "Tell Rhythm about Drake."

Drake glanced up in surprise, meeting her gaze, finally replying once he had gotten over his initial shock, "Eh, I'm not all that interesting. Lived on the same island all my life, learned to fight with an axe."

"His axe is unique. Why did he choose one like that?" Rhythm queried, eyes narrowed and calculating. It was extremely familiar to her, and she knew exactly why, but had been wondering for some time now if it was his intention or simply a coincidence.

Drake once again adopted a surprised expression. He quickly recomposed himself, "I got my axe designed after a man of whom I deeply respect. You've probably never heard of him, though, since he disappeared years ago."

"Name?" she scowled, realizing that she had been right about her suspicions.

"Captain Troi was his name... Captain Doom D Troi."

For a quarter of a second, Rhythm's eyes widened, but she almost immediately forced the, to return to their usual size. Drake didn't seem to have noticed, or if he did he didn't say anything and most likely assumed it was because Doom D Troi was a well-known individual and she had simply recognized him.

"He saved my family and I once, by putting his life on the line. After seeing him in action, I gained a great respect and admiration for the man, and modelled my own weapon after his," Drake went on to explain.

Rhythm nodded, a steely look in her green eyes, "I know of him."

Drake nodded thoughtfully, "It's definitely possible. He used to be a really famous explorer back in the day, eh. Anyways, that's the story behind my axe."

"Fascinating," she drawled, bringing a hand up to her mouth to suffocate a yawn.

With that said, Rhythm stood up and walked to the helm once more, which Drake took to be a sign that their conversation was over. He shrugged, not the least bit upset over the fact that he was now able to relax some more.

XxxxX

 **[two days later]**

"Island spotted," Rhythm stated dully, causing the half-asleep Drake to open one eye and then mutter grumpily back to her, "Your supposed to say 'land ho.'"

After approximately ten more minutes, they were upon the island. It was medium in size, and nothing all that spectacular in appearance. The landscape was barren of vegetation and completely inhabited with buildings and roads. There was scarce a tree that hadn't yet been chopped down. It seemed to be slightly more technologically advanced than most islands in this area of West Blue, though.

"Ever been here before?" her first mate queried.

"Yeah, she has. Boo."

Surprised, he queried, "Then why come again? Wouldn't that be boring if you already know everything about the island?"

"Usually, yeah," Rhythm agreed, "But she hasn't been here since she was eight, and lots of stuff have changed since then, or so Rhythm has heard, hmm."

Drake nodded in understanding, standing up and leaning against the wall, "Ah, I see. So how old are you now?"

"Seventeen, she thinks."

Drake laughed, "You just think so?"

"Don't really keep track," she brooded, the atmosphere around her turning gloomy.

Drake unconsciously scooted a few inches sideways.


	14. Episode 14

It wasn't long before the two pirates had reached the dock of the next island. Drake quietly slipped off the ship and onto the large dock, then busied himself with retying his already-tied shoe, purposefully leaving Rhythm to drop down the anchor and pretending he was too busy to do it himself.

Once she had completed the task, she gracefully stepped onto the dock beside her, catching up to Drake. The dock was huge, extremely wide and much longer lengthwise. It took the two of them a good thirty seconds of walking in order to finally reach the end of it. Drake, with his hands lazily shoved into his pockets, dragged his feet as he walked, and upon reaching the end of the dock, he slowly lowered his feet down onto the sandy beach below, his movement drawn-out and sluggish. Rhythm gracefully jumped down, landing without a sound and so lightly that hardly a single particle of sand around her feet moved when she hit the beach.

Surrounding the large dock was a civilization, though Rhythm was unable to tell how large it was due to the limited vantage point she held. With Drake to her left trailing just behind her by a couple steps, the two began making their way into town. The streets were dirty, littered with garbage of all sorts. As they walked, they kicked up some of the many layers of dust coating the town, tinted with the decaying smell of the area, assaulting their nostrils with the pungent smell.

Despite the horrid shape the town was in, however, the area was bustling with many different kinds of people, all different shapes and sizes. There was an obvious distinction, though, between two different classes of people. The first were those who looked to be about mid-class or higher, and all wore nice clothes and unashamedly looked down upon the other class. The second group of people were those who were poorer than poor, with ripped rags just barely holding together, pieces of the garments dangling by mere threads. Each of these people's faces and clothes were masked in a layer of dust and grime, and some were so filthy that there hair could have been bright blonde originally, though now turned black with soot, and no one would have been able to tell. There was no in between with these two different groups of people—there were those who were well-off, and those who were not.

Before the two pirates could get too far, however, a tiny creature not much larger than a rat turned the corner and began barrelling towards them, whiz zing by bystanders like a bullet, stirring up the dust in the street ahead of it so greatly that Rhythm was unable to determine what kind of animal it was, the air-born dust covering the entirety of its body like a mask.

Without being able to see where it was going, and with the pungent smell of rotting decay that filled the city preventing its nose from helping to determine its surroundings, the little creature barrelled straight into Drake's leg. Dazed, the small animal fell onto its backside, whimpering slightly. Rhythm bent down to examine it, and was surprised to find that it was a tiny dog, easily small enough to fit in the palm of her hand.

Despite the cloud of dust and grime it had kicked up earlier while running, the dog now stood in front of them, its fluffy coat of fur shining a pristine white, not a speck of dust in sight. The little creature let out a squeal of delight upon seeing Rhythm, and immediately began dancing around on its hind legs, tail wagging, as it tried to reach her. Rhythm picked the small dog up carefully, letting it snuggle into the palm of her hand with a contented bark as she stood back up and held it at eye level.

Before she could spend too much time trying to think of a dog breed that would allow a dog to be so incredibly tiny yet extremely fast as a puppy, Drake alerted her attention to an old man scurrying frantically back and forth between the many people on the streets, asking each and every one if they had seen a tiny dog run by. Each replied that they hadn't, and told him to try asking someone else further down the street, or on another street altogether.

As the old man was pleading with yet another person, he happened to notice the unusual lime green hair of a woman with a man beside her, who also had oddly coloured hair, though his was black with bright blonde strands strewn about randomly. He immediately stopped his rushed conversation with the woman in front of him, confusing her greatly, and scurried over to the two pirates, letting out a cry of happiness upon seeing that they had found his dog.

"Oh my, you found my little Jacqueline!" he exclaimed excitedly, bubbling over with joy. He gently took the sleeping dog from Rhythm's hand and snuggled it close to his body for a moment, before slipping the small dog into the large left hand pocket of his black cargo pants. Eyes frantic, he cried out, "How could I ever repay you! You two children truly are angels, sent from heaven above!"

"Actually, Drake and Rhythm are _pirates_ ," Rhythm growled in annoyance.

"Pirate angels, then!" he bellowed in delight, happiness bursting forth from his person. Rhythm scowled, taking a step away to ensure that she wouldn't be affected by such contamination.

"Can we go now?" Drake asked rudely, raising an eyebrow as he pulled out a toothpick from his pocket and stuck it in his mouth, beginning to gently gnaw on it.

The man's eyes widened, apparently horrified at the thought of letting the two escape so easily. "Oh, no! That wouldn't be right! I simply must have you both over for breakfast this fine morning!"

"She already ate," Rhythm sneered, turning away and beginning to walk in the opposite direction.

Drake smirked, seeing an opportunity to annoy his captain as he called after her, "Yeah, cap'n, you ate a piece of cardboard. I don't think that's all that beneficial to your health. This old chap here though will fill your stomach to the brim, ain't that right, old man?"

The aged gentlemen beamed, "Oh yes, I will definitely fill you to the brim with my luscious waffles, dipped in thick syrup and dotted with whip cream and sweet strawberries."

Rhythm turned around and glared at her first mate, scowling in immense annoyance as she walked back over to the pair. Drake had been smirking triumphantly, until he saw his brooding captain's expression, which caused it to immediately slip off his face. The green haired woman huffed, annoyed that she had been roped into going with some old unnaturally joyful idiot, who seemed to just be overflowing with sparkles and sunshine. The only tempting thing about the place they were headed was the waffles she would soon be eating; she'd always had a soft spot for waffles.

Unable to contain his delight, the man began bouncing in a direction that Rhythm assumed would lead them to his home. Feeling obligated to follow, she began walking at a quick pace to keep up with him, making sure to stay at such a distance behind the eccentric geaser that no one would associate her with him, and also so that she wouldn't have to deal with the huge beaming rays of delight he was sending off in all directions.

Drake, originally happy at the opportunity to eat sugar-enriched food, now stared after the two in distain. He'd forgotten that he'd have to walk all the way to the man's house, and really didn't want to exert all the energy required in doing so. He'd much rather just lay down against one of the old stores lining the streets and have a snooze in the sun. Upon receiving a sharp look from his captain, however, which wordlessly told him that if she had to do this then he also had to, Drake began following after the two, dragging his feet and walking at a slow pace to show how unhappy he was about having to move.

Seeing that his two guests were far behind him, the old man waited for them to catch up. He began walking slower, at Rhythm's pace this time, much to her dismay. Every time she would move away from him, he would move closer to her, seemingly not noticing her apprehensiveness.

He bored them with a long story that lasted the entire way there, the subject of the tale being some story about when his grandson was just a baby and had gotten scared by the housecat. The old man beamed with pride whenever his grandson was mentioned, and it was obvious by the way he talked that the man simply adored the child.

He went to begin another tale when he realized that they had come upon his house. Rushing ahead, he held open the door for Rhythm, and then waited an entire minute until Drake lazily strolled in, his beaming smile never once wavering despite having to hold the door open for so long.

"Have a seat, have a seat!" he cheered good-naturedly, shooing them into his small kitchen and pulling out two chairs for them both. Hesitantly, the pirates sat down and waited for the waffles that the old man had promised them.

True to his word, the old man soon came back in from the kitchen with a plate of steaming waffles, using both of his shaky hands to balance the dish. He grinned at them, "Hey! I didn't introduce myself, did I?"

"Rhythm is sure you did," the green haired woman muttered to herself, hoping that saying that would stop him from continuing with his next long and drawn out explanation. She stared blankly at the little wooden table through sleepy half-lidded eyes.

The old man either didn't hear her, or simply ignored her, informing them, "My name is Jai! And this is my puppy, Jacqueline! You saved her, and I'll be forever thankful!" He then gestured to the plate of waffles, urging them, "Please, do help yourselves."

Drake immediately began helping himself to the plate of waffles. He used the fork that Jai had provided to dish himself out four waffles, setting them carefully on his plate so that none overlapped another. He then grabbed the jar of syrup from in the middle of the table and tilted it downwards, leaving a zig-zagging trail of syrup on each. Taking ahold of the spoon that had been placed in the whip cream, Drake helped himself to a large serving of it, making sure that each waffle was completely covered in it.

While Drake dotted a large helping of strawberries onto his waffles, Rhythm frowned, staring at the large plate in suspicion. The old man obviously couldn't eat the amount of waffles that he had cooked in advance, and that only meant that he had been expecting guests. Rhythm's gaze fell upon the happy man, realizing that he had let his puppy loose in order to make friends with someone and invite them to his house for breakfast. He was just a lonely old man who wanted some company.

"So, old man," Drake asked with a mouth full of food, "Why's it that some people are sparkly clean around here, and others are filthy?"

Jai's expression immediately soured as he replied, "The mayor of our town has a sort of bias towards those who have a higher income, and therefore pay him more taxes. He had a special concoction invented, which he gives to those who have an income over a certain amount. All they have to do is continuously put it in their bath water and in the liquid they used to wash their clothes, and they'll always remain sparkly clean, despite the horrendous amount of dirt in this town."

Rhythm helped herself to the some of the waffles in the large plate positioned in the middle of the table, and then added toppings. She, too, took enough whip cream for many more pancakes than she had put on her plate, and then picked up her fork. Biting into the first waffle, she was surprised by its delicious taste and texture. They had been cooked for just the right amount of time, and each waffle had the perfect amount of crispness to them.

As they ate, Jai began telling his favourite stories. Most of them were about his grandson, who he had explained was only eleven years old, but other stories took place in the watch factory he owned, on this very island. This went on for well over an hour, during which Rhythm and Drake had both dozed off multiple times, Rhythm on purpose and Drake by accident.

"My son didn't take much interest in the family business, and couldn't be bothered by taking our family heirloom, which is this very golden watch," he held up his wrist excitedly, displaying the golden accessory with great pride, "But my grandson, you see... he loves watches! Whenever he comes to visit me—he lives just the next island over, by the way—he comes to my factory and we both build and fix watches together! When I told him the history behind this watch, and he learned that it's been passed down from generation from generation for centuries, he became so excited, and couldn't wait for the day I passed down my watch to him!"

"That's... great," Rhythm grumbled sarcastically to herself, annoyed that she had to listen to such nonsense as she ate. If someone was going to talk around her while she eat, they should at least be saying something useful. Though, she supposed, the old man most likely thought of what he was telling them to be of the greatest importance.

Jai laughed excitedly, not realizing that his audience was being sarcastic. With even greater vigour, he continued, "Today is the day that I pass down my watch to my grandson! In fact, I'm setting sail in my very own fishing boat right after breakfast. He's going to be so thrilled!"

"Good for him," Rhythm hissed quietly under her breath, her expression was one of annoyance, never once wavering throughout the entire meal.

"Yes, it is!" Jai chuckled heartily, "Actually, one time when he was six, he got into..."

Rhythm didn't let the man continue his tale. She stood up abruptly, causing both the men to look to her in surprise. She frowned deeply, "Thanks for yer food, mister, but we haveta go, hmm."

Jai beamed up at her, "One more story? Please?"

 _"NO!"_ Rhythm and Drake chorused in unison, causing the old man to grin even wider.

"Very well, I've kept you both here for almost an hour and a half already, and I s'pose I'd better let you go!" Jai announced loudly, standing up from his chair and allowing Rhythm and Drake to walk towards his door before he followed after.

Drake smiled at the Jai, "Thanks for the meal, old man! It was really good! Loved the whip cream, by the way. It was blended absolutely perfectly!"

Rhythm's scowl lightened significantly as she turned to her first mate and muttered in an amused voice, "Wow, didn't know you could get so soft about food."

"Just the sugary stuff," he smirked back, "Vegetables can go rot."

Jai smiled widely as he bid the two pirates farewell, and even Jacqueline came out of his pocket to say goodbye to them in the form of a happy high-pitched bark. Rhythm gently pat the tiny puppy on the head a couple of times before turning and around and walking off before the old man tried sucking them in for yet another story. Drake followed her, waving one last time at the man before following after his captain. He groaned as he jogged for a few seconds to catch up to her, before asking, "Yo, cap'n, can you slow down?"

"Why, can't take it?"

"I'm too lazy to take anything, really," he muttered with a long and drawn-out sigh.

XxxXxxX

A/N: Thanks so much for the recent reviews, you guys! I really love hearing from you, and it honestly motivates me to post new chapters sooner than I had originally planned to release them. So yeah, it would be great if you guys could review more too... it's greatly appreciated. Just tell me what you think of the story so far, good things or bad things alike(:


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